Bulletproof
ABOUT
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.
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. In 2020 he received the Hot Docs International Emerging Filmmaker award for his film Bulletproof. 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. He teaches in the film Department at Brooklyn College.
CREDITS
Todd Chandler
Shannon Kennedy