ABOUT
What does it mean to be safe in school in the United States? Safe from what, and from whom? Bulletproof poses and complicates these questions through a provocative exploration of fear and American violence.
Bulletproof explores the complexities of violence in schools by looking at the strategies employed to prevent it. The film observes the longstanding rituals that take place in and around American schools: homecoming parades, basketball practice, morning announcements, and math class. Unfolding alongside these scenes are a collection of newer traditions: lockdown drills, teacher firearms training, metal detector screenings, and school safety trade shows. Bulletproof asks what these rituals reflect back at us, looking beyond immediate causes and responses to mass shootings in a cinematic meditation on the array of forces that shape the culture of violence in the United States.
TRAILeR
PRESS
”Chilling. Candid and heartbreaking…a keenly observational film that depicts the day-to-day normalization of the unspeakable.”
- Variety
“Dreamlike. Startling. An alarmed and alarming vision of safety.”
-The New York Times
”A quiet gut punch of a film, one that takes in the culture of violence in the US through observations of routine rather than infamous ruptures.”
-The Guardian
”A carefully-framed window onto a disturbingly off-kilter world.”
- Screen Daily
“Brilliant. Invaluable. A smartly conceived look at the first generation of students to prepare for mass shootings and how fear of them has been commoditized.”
- Moveable Fest
SEE THE FILM
USA/CANADA
WORLDWIDE (OUTSIDE USA/CANADA)
UPCOMING SCREENINGS
Additional screenings TBA
PAST SCREENINGS
SXSW - Austin, TX. March, 2020 (Documentary Competition, slated World Premiere)
Hot Docs Film Festival - Toronto, ON. May 28 - June 24, 2020 (Winner International Emerging Filmmaker Award)
Maryland Film Festival - Baltimore, MD. June 21 - June 22, 2020
Gimli Film Festival - Gimli, MB. July 21 - 26, 2020 (Closing Night Film)
Dokufest - Pizren, KOS. August 7 - 21, 2020
Rooftop Films Summer Series - New York, NY. September 11, 2020
Camden International Film Festival - Camden, ME. October 2 - 12, 2020
Union Docs - Brooklyn, NY. October 17, 2020
Philadelphia Film Festival - Philadelphia, PA. October 27, 2020
Dok Leipzig - Leipzig, DE. October 26 - November 1, 2020
Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival - Jihlava, CZ. October 27 - November 8, 2020
Tacoma Film Festival - Tacoma, WA. November 13 - 15, 2020
Festival dei Popoli - Florence, IT. November 15 - 22, 2020
IDFA - Amsterdam, NL. November 20 - December 4, 2020
Docpoint Tallinn - Tallinn, EE. February 2 - 7, 2021
Doclisboa - Lisbon, PT. February 25 - March 3, 2021
SXSW EDU - Austin, TX. March 10, 2021
Tempo Documentary Festival - Stockholm, SE. March 10 - 12, 2021
Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival - Ljubljana, SI. March 24 - 31, 2021
San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival - San Sebastian, ES. April 27, 2021
Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival - Kyiv, UA, May 31, 2021
Docville International Documentary Film Festival - Leuven, BE. June 1-10, 2021
Sedona International Film Festival - Sedona, CA, June 12-14, 2021
Melbourne International Film Festival - Melbourne, AU. August 5 - 22, 2021
DMZ Docs - Goyanggi-do, KOR, September 9-3, 2021
Metrograph - New York, NY. October 29 - November 4, 2011
Speed Museum - Louisville, KY. November 13 - 14, 2021
Frames of Representation, London, UK. November 28, 2021
Bright Lights Screening Series - Boston, MA. February 17, 2022
Olympia Film Society - Olympia, WA. July 9, 2022
Institute of Contemporary Arts - London, UK. August 19 - August 25, 2022
Kirkwood Public Library - Kirkwood, MO. September 12, 2022
Museum of the Moving Image - Astoria, NY. September 23, 2022
CREATIVE TEAM
TODD CHANDLER Director / Producer / Editor
Todd Chandler is a filmmaker, artist, and educator. His work has been featured atTrue/False, IDFA, Doclisboa, the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Mass MoCA. His projects have been supported by Creative Capital, Field of Vision, Sundance Institute, International Documentary Association, Doc Society, and ITVS, among others. His first feature film, Flood Tide, premiered at the Torino Film Festival, followed by an extensive tour of museums, universities, backyards, rock clubs, and assorted DIY spaces, often with a live score. His short film A Debtors’ Prison premiered at Camden International Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’ POV. He was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2019, a fellow at the Sundance Non-Fiction Director’s Residency, and a Points North Fellow.
DANIELLE VARGA Producer
Danielle Varga is a creative nonfiction producer based in Brooklyn. She most recently produced Brett Story's The Hottest August(True/False, SXSW 2019), and co-produced Kirsten Johnson's award-winning film Cameraperson(Sundance 2016). She was consulting producer on Charm City(Tribeca 2018), This is Home (Sundance 2018), and her additional credits include Teenage and 1971. Prior to working in independent documentary, she was associate producer for Bill Moyers’ weekly current affairs program Moyers & Company, and worked on several programs for PBS’s Frontline andAmerican Experience series. Danielle was recently listed on DOC NYC’s 2018 inaugural list of “40 Under 40” filmmakers to watch. She was a 2016-2017 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, has led producing workshops at Union Docs, and has pitched projects at Hot Docs Forum, CPH:DOX Forum and the Sundance Creative Producing Summit
EMILY TOPPER Cinematographer
Emily Topper was born and raised in Baltimore, earned a BA from Swarthmore College in Literature, and an MFA from University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, and lives in Los Angeles. Her films include the 2015 Emmy winner for Best Documentary, After Tiller, Ain't In it For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, 116 Cameras, The Departure, The Most Unknown, and A Cure for Fear. Emily has shot films for PBS, Drifting Cloud Productions, Field of Vision, The California Endowment, Birdling Films, Hairpin Communication, Loteria Films, Vice, The Redford Center, Global Oneness Project, and countless other trouble-makers. Most recent is The Most Unknown (CPH:DOX 2018), following ten surprisingly humble scientists around the world as they push up against the outermost edges of human knowledge.
SHANNON KENNEDY Editor
Shannon Kennedy is a documentary editor and consultant whose credits include Esther Robinson’s A Walk into the Sea, which won, amongst other awards, a Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern’s The Trials of Daryl Hunt, which won a DuPont Award. Along with director Kimberly Reed, Kennedy edited Prodigal Sons, which has won numerous awards. She also edited Sam Green’s The Universal Language, Cathryn Collins’ VLAST (POWER), Cameron Yates’ The Canal Street Madam, and Mai Iskander’s Words of Witness. In addition, she co-edited Mark Kendall’s La Camioneta, which received an IDA award.
Executive Producers
SALLY JO FIFER
LOIS VOSSEN
Composer
TROY HERION
Sound Design
RYAN BILLIA
