SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT is an experimental documentary that examines the ominous presence of the Tea Party in the national political discourse at a time of severe economic distress. It takes its title from George Orwell's metaphorical essay on the waning days of the British Empire. A construct of words and images, the film describes a condition rather than telling a particular story. Numerous individuals from the group's rank-and-file are seen in intimate detail as they absorb the salient voices that articulate the precepts and paranoid imaginings of the movement. Right-wing authoritarianism hangs in the air as the words, faces and public spectacles of the Tea Party are combined to create a heightened sense of the absurdity, mania and incoherent rage that define it.