3 Goats and a Gruff

3 Goats and a Gruff” is presumed to be Elam’s first finished film, made while she lived in Yellow Springs, OH, in the late 1960s. In this fable, a “gruff” living in the woods threatens to shoot three “goats” passing, one by one, through a covered bridge. The first, a hippie flower woman, implores the gruff to let her pass and instead look for a smoking hippie man to come next. The man in turn encourages the gruff to look for the next traveler, whom he mimes to be a gruesome beast. Finally, this next man comes on a motorcycle and after a stand-off with the gruff, rides through to the path ahead. The gruff lies defeated in his wake. The exact date of production remains unknown.;[A digitization error at approximately 6:00 results in a brief skipping in the video file. This skipping is not in the original film.]