The Elephant in the Room is an archival adventure documentary that explores the creation of the American Museum of Natural History through the interconnected histories of its extraordinary artifacts and the people behind them.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
$450,000.00
Goal-
$0.00
Raised -
141
Days to go
, United States (US)
SYNOPSIS
Our story is set during the museum’s “Golden Age of Exploration” against the backdrop of America at the turn of the 20th Century. In 1890 the U.S. Census Bureau officially deemed the American frontier closed—but America’s imperial project was really just beginning. Planes, trains, cameras, and lightbulbs were forever changing our relationship to space and time.
The Elephant in the Room moves like a guided tour through a cabinet of curiosities: part adventure story, part encyclopedia, part rabbit hole. Each object we come across is reanimated by the archive, uncovering how it came to the museum, and the characters who brought it there.
As we travel to the ends of the earth with intrepid explorers on their ambitious quest to save the world under glass, we begin to explore the inherent tension in trying to preserve a world that is always evolving.
Our film will be told through an immersive, multi-layered storytelling approach, combining a rich palette of archival footage with dynamic soundscapes. The film will use a collage-like editing style, breathing new life into the museum’s artifacts by giving them sound, space, and presence.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I see archival documentaries as a vehicle of exploration, a way of finding patterns in how human nature repeats itself across different times and contexts.
Drawn to stories about time, technology, and mythology, I quickly saw the museum as a space where all three converge. I was first pulled in by the artistry of its displays, but as I dug deeper, richer themes began to emerge about our relationship to the natural world—both as a nation and as a Species.
As a filmmaker I look for stories that hold multiple truths and am more interested in asking questions than prescribing answers. One of the central challenges—and excitements—of this project is holding that nuance: seeing the museum as both a place of wonder and one deeply entangled with histories of power, empire, and colonialism. While the explorers in this film were creating a natural history of the world through the artifacts they collected, I’m crafting a natural history of the museum through the archival materials they left behind.
TEAM BIO
DIRECTOR & EDITOR
Marley McDonald is a filmmaker and painter living in Queens, New York. She directed and edited her debut feature-length documentary, Time Bomb Y2K, co-directed with Brian Becker, which premiered on HBO in December 2023. Her recent editing work includes Earth to Michael (Telluride 2025) and the generative documentary Eno (Sundance 2024). Her associate editor credits include Spaceship Earth (Sundance 2020) and the Golden Lion–winning, Oscar-nominated documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
PRODUCER
Kiva Reardon is a producer working across fiction and non-fiction. Past credits include: Sorry, Baby (Sundance 2025), Now, Hear Me Good (IFFR 2025), and the forthcoming Future Tense. Previously, she held the positions of: Vice President of Film at Barry Jenkins’s production company PASTEL; Associate Director of Film Programs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; and Lead Programmer of Contemporary World Cinema at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). She has acted as an advisor at the Sundance, Film Independent, and Almanack Screenwriters labs and served on festival juries at Locarno, Jeonju, Palm Springs, and Aspen.
ARCHIVAL PRODUCER TEAM
Peter Nauffts is a filmmaker and archival producer in New York. He co-produced the HBO documentary, TIME BOMB Y2K, which premiered at True/False Film Festival in 2023. Most recently, he archival produced on THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD (dir. Sam Green; Sundance 2026); SUN RA: DO THE IMPOSSIBLE (dir. Christine Turner; Tribeca 2025), which premiered on PBS American Masters in February 2026; THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY (dir. Naeem Mohaimen; 2025) a three-channel film commission by Artangel; and CRITICAL CONDITION: HEALTH IN BLACK AMERICA (dir. Stanley Nelson; PBS NOVA, 2025).
CONSULTING PRODUCER
John Cardellino is an independent Producer and the founder of Future Perfect Limited, a U.S.-based production company. His current projects include Sky Hopinka’s Powwow People, Marley McDonald’s The Elephant In The Room, Lawrence Burney’s Revisiting Ramona, and Savannah Wood’s Hard To Get And Dear Paid For. Previously, John was the Producer of Sundance Institute’s Art of Nonfiction Initiative, a program designed to encourage and support inventive artistic practice in documentary filmmaking. Supported films and artists included Garrett Bradley’s Time, RaMell Ross’ Hale County
This Morning, This Evening, Kitty Green’s The Assistant, and Sky Hopinka’s MAɬNI – Towards The Ocean, Towards The Shore. He earned his MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and is based in Brooklyn, NY.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Sarah Yi Fineman is a documentary filmmaker and writer who lives in New York City. She is interested in the ways phenomena of everyday life entangle with strains of the political and the profound. Her recent work as an assistant editor and associate producer includes Free Leonard Peltier (Sundance 2025), Look Into My Eyes (Sundance 2024), and Power (Sundance 2024). Sarah also sometimes produces and edits fiction shorts, and is on the leadership team of the documentary industry initiative BIPOC Doc Editors. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Neuroscience from the University of Chicago.
CONSULTING EDITOR
Joe Bini is an acclaimed editor known for his work on numerous award-winning films, including Grizzly Man, You Were Never Really Here, and American Dharma. Bini brings extensive experience in crafting compelling narratives from complex materials, providing invaluable guidance in shaping The Elephant in the Room. His expertise will help ensure the film’s unique blend of archival footage and contemporary commentary is both engaging and impactful.
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE
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