Bulletproof

Synopsis

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 ways we try 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 how these rituals reflect our culture 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.

Director Biography

Todd Chandler is a filmmaker, artist, and educator. His films and installations have been featured at the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Mass MoCA, Torino Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, True/False, and the Camden International Film Festival. His work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Corporation of Yaddo. He is a 2017-2018 Points North Fellow. He has taught in high schools and universities for over fifteen years, and currently teaches in the Film Department at Brooklyn College.