World's Largest
Desperate for tourism, hundreds of small towns across the U.S.A. claim the “world’s largest” something from 15-foot fiberglass strawberries to 40-foot concrete pheasants. Odd, funny and sometimes beautiful, the statues stand as testaments to the uniqueness and importance – the largeness – that all people feel, and need to feel, about their communities and their own existence.
World’s Largest, a feature documentary, visits 58 such sites and profiles Soap Lake, Washington’s four-year struggle to build the World’s Largest Lava Lamp. By documenting these roadside attractions, World’s Largest captures the changing landscape of small-town America.
“A little movie with a big heart, “World’s Largest” is a brilliant documentary about small towns with big hopes.”
“It starts out as a funny look at quirky characters and oddball statues, and slowly reveals itself as a wistful commentary about a pastoral community that is ebbing away.”
Film Details
Silly America
Review of World’s Largest
Film School Rejects
“‘World’s Largest’ is brilliant”
Quad-City Times
Review of World’s Largest
Austin Chronicle
Review of World’s Largest
The Independent Critic
“SXSW ’10 | “World’s Largest” Directors Amy C. Elliott & Elizabeth Donius On Small-Town America” IndieWire
“Big Things in Small Towns” Connect Savannah
“Amy Elliott and Elizabeth Donius, ‘World’s Largest’” Film Yap
“DN SXSW2010: Amy C. Elliott & Elizabeth Donius” Directors Notes
Profile of World’s Largest Hanford Sentinel
Amy C. Elliott
Co-Director/Shooter
Amy C. Elliott is a photographer and documentary filmmaker based in New York City. She has been shooting motion and still editorial assignments for over fifteen years, with a particular focus on regional American culture. She directed and shot the feature documentaries Wicker Kittens (2014) and World’s Largest (2010). She was awarded the American Society of Media Photographer’s Best of 2012 honors for The War Within, a major multimedia project for The American Legion, focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans. Other clients include The New York Times, American Road and The Public Art Fund. She is a graduate of Princeton University.
Elizabeth Donius
Co-Director
Elizabeth Donius is a producer, filmmaker and arts administrator. In addition to Salvage, she collaborated with Amy Elliott on the documentary World’s Largest, on several segments for the Independent Film Channel series Split Screen, and on their first film project, the narrative feature Headless. Elizabeth served for many years as the Executive Director of the IFP Chicago, a member-advocacy organization for filmmakers across the Midwest. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where she produced the Children’s Film Festival for the Yale Center for British Art and managed the Community Programs for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, identifying and developing programs at the intersection of the New Haven community and visiting international artists.
World’s Largest was selected for the prestigious Southern Circuit with screenings in:
Montgomery, AL
Alexandria, LA
Savannah, GA
Tupelo, MS
Thomasville, GA
Charleston, SC
Winder, GA
Clemson, SC
Johnson City, TN
