**Film(s) looking forward to most at True/False:** “Actress” and “The Overnighters”
**Director(s) that most inspires her:** Albert Maysles and Frederick Wiseman
**How many years she’s been directing:** Seven years
Imagine waking up and asking yourself, “What do I want to do today?”
Free schoolers at the Teddy McArdle Free School in Little Falls, N.J., have the opportunity to ask themselves that question every day. Opened in 2007, the school welcomed students to the classrooms without a set agenda and allowed them to decide democratically what they did that day. The kids don’t even necessarily have to go to classes.
This lifestyle is what filmmaker Amanda Rose Wilder captures in her documentary, “Approaching the Elephant.” Wilder follows the lives of free schoolers as they adjust to a new, innovative way of learning.
The film “follows two kids and the school director during their inaugural year at a free school where kids have a democratic vote,” Wilder says. “It’s almost kind of a start-up story, from day one to the end of the school year. There’s this one kid who’s the leader and the biggest troublemaker, and (it’s) about how people deal with that.”
The main difference, she says, between a free school and a typical school is that “the kids determine their schedule but don’t have to necessarily go to classes.”
Free schoolers make most, if not all, of the decisions at free schools, though sometimes issues do come up.
“Lucy, an 8 year old, had called a meeting once with Alex Khost, the director of the school, because Alex said she couldn’t jump off the high bins, and she said that he couldn’t tell her what to do and it had to be voted on,” Wilder says. “Both were taking it very seriously.”
Wilder started her project at age 25, fresh out of Marlboro College. She teamed up with producer and Marlboro professor Jay Craven to document Teddy McArdle.
“Of course, Amanda’s film also shows the challenges of making this work,” said Craven, producer of “Where the River Flows North,” which stars Michael J. Fox. “So many elements are needed, starting with an intimate atmosphere of trust and generosity from every quarter, including the kids to each other.”
“Amanda is also fearless,” Craven said. “She stakes everything on just the power of close observation with no narration or staged interviews to carry her through. It’s all there, through just the filming and editing. It’s pure cinema.”
The Teddy McArdle Free School is not the first of its kind. There are about 260 free schools in the world, and the number is increasing.
“They give young kids the ability to be a self-directed person and ask, ‘What do I want to do today?’ ” Wilder says. “It works on that muscle of self-direction.”