The Year That Trembled

APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is a feature-length documentary about The Teddy McArdle Free School, where classes are optional and rules are made by democratic vote. Summerhill, founded 90 years ago by A. S. Neill, was the first free school - now there are more than 200 worldwide. Approaching the Elephant chronicles a free school in the making - spanning two years, from Teddy McArdle's first day when there were no rules or classes, through the changing of the school's director and the expulsion of a student by democratic vote, to the last day of the second year, APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is an intimate portrait of a small group of people from a range of educational backgrounds, come together to forge a place where children are treated as equals, at liberty to spend their days however they please.

A lone wolf logger fights developers, bankers and the modern world to maintain his way of life.

In 1956, ten-year-old Austen Kittredge is sent to live on his grandparents’ Vermont farm, where he experiences wild adventures and uncovers long-festering family secrets.

Quebec Bill Bohomme is a hardy schemer and dreamer, who, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered herd through the rapidly approaching winter, resorts to whiskey-smuggling, a traditional family occupation. Quebec Bill takes his son, Wild Bill, on the journey. Also Henry Coville, an inscrutable whiskey smuggler, and Rat Kinneson, Quebec Bill's perpetually disconsolate ex-con hired man. Together, they cross the border into vast reaches of Canadian wilderness for an unforgettable four days "full of terror, full of wonder."

A bioengineering company releases a new product: Mungoes, human beings who have been stripped of all memories, feelings, and free will. They are stoic, docile, perfect for menial labor. The lead engineer, however, has bigger ideas for them, and begins secretly implanting them with artificial memories and emotions—and even the ability to love.

A Vermont town in the 1950s hires a new minister based on his war record, but are shocked, when he shows up, to find that he is black.

A town doctor’s jealousy over his younger brother’s mysterious inheritance is compounded when they both fall for the same woman.

Two brothers’ relationship strains when the younger one receives news of a strange inheritance complicating their competition for a mysterious young woman. The entire family reaches a breaking point brought about by startling revelations about their mother’s fidelity, love, friendship and betrayal... Based on Guy de Maupassant’s 19th century seaside novel, Pierre et Jean!

The tale of an individualist proletarian in a time marked by the rise of mass political movements. In early 20th-century Italy, illiterate sailor Martin Eden seeks fame as a writer while torn between the love of a bourgeois girl and allegiance to his social class.

An epic tale of Vermont's fight for self-determination, led by Ethan Allen; and Lucy Prince, the first black female poet, and her quest for justice and peace.

Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie is the first-ever documentary series about Vermont. The six-part film is a collaboration of over four dozen critically acclaimed Vermont filmmakers, led by award-winning filmmaker Nora Jacobson (“Delivered Vacant,” “My Mother’s Early Lovers,” “Nothing Like Dreaming”). Sponsors include the Vermont Arts Council, Vermont Community Foundation, Vermont Humanities Council, Bay and Paul Foundation, John M. Bissell Foundation, Green Valley Media, National Life of Vermont Foundation, and the Vermont Country Store. Our advisors are well-known historians, educators, curators, authors, artists, politicians, and activists.