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Elephant

Directed by Gus Van Sant

United States • 2003 • 81 mins.

Showtimes & Past Screenings

Winner of the Palme d ‘Or and Best Director awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Van Sant drew inspiration for his key protagonists from the real-life Columbine High School tragedy. Rather than attempting to offer easy explanations, Van Sant creates a highly stylized evocation of a day in the life of a “normal” American high school, conveying a surface that in its very universality provides a telling portrait of an undercurrent of complexity and unease untied to specific events. Long, rhythmic takes and tracking shots subliminally map a topography in the viewer’s mind that is later revisited by the student killers.

Genres: Drama

Appears in: Essential Gus Van Sant (& His Influences)

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.