ELEPHANT, jan 31

Before Elephant, we will be screening 'SNIP' a film by
Aditya Vikram Sengupta(Graphic Design, Sem8).
This was his 2nd project.
It is a mix of animation and live-action.
........................................................................
ELEPHANT
Gus Van Sant

A cinematic response to the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, in which
12 students were shot down by 2 of their peers.

ABOUT THE FILM:

Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film
Festival, 'Elephant' takes audiences inside an American high school on
what appears to be an ordinary day. Most of the film takes place about 5
minutes before the shooting occurs, following several characters as they
live out their school lives, unaware of what is about to unfold.

Van Sant’s loose script is enacted by mostly non-professional actors and
high-school students who kept their names and chose their own clothes for
the film.'Elephant' refuses to conform to conventional notions of cause
and effect, and instead weaves an inexorable spell on the viewer with its
strangely meandering long takes, striking visual harmony and looping
narrative structure.


ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

He is an American Academy Award nominated film director, photographer,
musician, and author.

With films like My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, To Die
For, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Forrester, writer/director Gus Van
Sant has explored what it is to be young and searching for an identity.
Openly gay, he has dealt unflinchingly with homosexual and other
marginalized subcultures without being particularly concerned about
providing positive role models.

WHY 'ELEPHANT':

We can understand the title 'Elephant' to refer to the parable of several
blind men describing an elephant by each touching a different part;
extending the meaning to refer to the infinite perspectives each of us can
bring to the one thing.

PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT:

In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark)
touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different
part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare
notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement.
The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently
depending upon one's perspective, suggesting that what seems an absolute
truth may be relative due to the deceptive nature of half-truths.


TRAILER

http://www.elephantmovie.com/trailer/md.html