(Text from www.traumafilm.com. Introductions to follow)

What is now known as the Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, Colorado. Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a rampage, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others, before committing suicide. In 2003 Gus Van Sant’s film Elephant re-enacted the tragedy in a fictional form. We showed this film as part of The Long Take season, and this special screening takes off from there, screening one of the fictional inspirations behind Van Sant’s film: Lindsay Anderson’s If… (the other fictional inspiration being Alan Clark’s film on Northern Ireland from 1989, also entitled Elephant).







Lindsay Anderson’s ‘If…’ from 1968 is a riotous black comedy of school-life staring Malcolm McDowell (who went on to star in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange) in his first screen appearance. The institution of the school bears down on three young men and events spiral out of control. Anderson uses vibrant colour film stock, black and white photography, long takes and fantasy sequences that seamlessly blend in with reality to produce a tale of anarchy and rebellion against the powers that be…








Additionally, in a move reminiscent of the chain of signification we will begin the special screening with the inspiration behind Anderson’s If…; Jean Vigo’s short Zéro de Conduite (Nothing for Conduct) from 1933. Banned by the French censor, until, well after World War II this film is as anarchic and inventive as Anderson’s film.