7. Approaching the Elephant
Site rank 4, IMDb rank 5; Overall Score = 9
Directed by Amanda Wilder
Approaching the Elephant is very aptly named. The title is based on an old anecdote of three blind men trying to determine what elephant is by touching him. Depending on their approach, all three draw a different conclusion. The film does the same to us. It is documenting a year in a free school in New Jersey, called the Teddy McArdle Free School. There are no rules here, except those made by teachers and kids jointly. If you don’t like a subject, you don’t have to learn it. But how does this small society copes when a truly disruptive element in a form of a spoiled boy is introduced? The film uses fly on the wall approach and it doesn’t make any judgments. There is no narration and all conclusion we make (or don’t make) are our own, not Amanda Wilder’s, which seems to be her intention. The school has been since closed, which may serve as a final judgment on its approach to education.
