book banning

Raw and revealing while remaining fastidiously observational, French documentarian Auberi Edler’s An American Pastoral is about the tense 2023 school board race in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, following as moderate candidates go up against a slate of far-right conservatives. In telling the story of that election, it lays bare the deep, painful divides that plague virtually every aspect of life in the United States. Edler’s camera is in the room as candidates and others express opinions on which books are and aren’t (mostly aren’t) appropriate to have in school libraries. She follows candidates as they canvas their neighbors, hoping to earn votes, and as they attend church services and other community events. She captures their (very) honest thoughts on Covid, January 6th, transgender people, the Constitution, handguns, and more. What emerges is the portrait of a town that, like the country it belongs to, is sharply split along ideological lines.