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Approaching the Elephant

Approaching the Elephant

2015
Documentary
1h 29m
Year one for Lucy, Jiovanni and director Alexander at the Teddy McArdle Free School in Little Falls, New Jersey, where classes are voluntary and rules created by democratic vote. Wilder is there from the beginning, observing an indelible cast of outspoken young personalities as they form relationships, explore their surroundings and intensely debate rule violations, until it all comes to a head. (imdb)
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Approaching the Elephant

2015
Documentary
1h 29m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 58.24% from 23 total ratings

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(23)
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Rated 08 Jan 2016
75
49th
I appreciate the way Wilder draws out a number of tensions between students and between students and teachers, as they seek to build up some measure of communal understanding with one another. I struggled with not having a clearer portrait of how the school actually functions, wanting to understand, in their words, what the philosophy of education was. That said, Wilder does a good job giving us a portrait of the day-to-day, which, frankly, seemed a breeding ground for entitlement.
Rated 24 Jan 2016
85
59th
At first, I felt like the outcome of this was telegraphed from the opening title cards (like, of course this isn't going to go well!). But the film takes some interesting turns at the end, as the founder of this school wrestles with his own creation, verbally beats down a problem child and threatens to quit the school he runs. It's scary when your dreams come true. Also, this is one of the best-looking docs of its kind that I've ever seen, like Wiseman on steroids.

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