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Released
2009 · FILM

The Sitting Machine

Runtime
91 min
Documentary

Synopsis

This character-driven verité documentary about children, learning and creativity, follows eight fifth graders in Rheems, Pennsylvania, as they set out to design and build chairs that can hold their own weight using only cardboard and glue. In Mrs. Smith's enrichment class they put away textbooks and learn to question the ordinary, take risks and solve problems themselves. With no interviews or commentary over a seven-month arc, it's a chance to observe the emerging personalities and natural drama of eight 10-year-olds. It's a heartfelt fifth-grade experience of creativity, frustration, hilarity and triumph.

Credits

Director of Photography

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 2

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Shot by Paul Hunt

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