Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden has found her first post-"Mystic River" role with IFC Films' ensemble drama "American Gun." The film is shooting in the San Fernando Valley.

Harden joins a cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland, Linda Cardellini and Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon. Other names in the ensemble are expected to be announced shortly.

Aric Avelino is making his directorial debut on the project, which explores the lives of a set of people and how the proliferation of guns in America has affected and shaped their lives.

Harden plays a single mother of two sons who is dealing with the aftermath of an incident that happened three years prior when one of her boys went on a shooting rampage at his high school.

Avelino wrote the script along with Steven Bagatourian. IFC, Whitaker's Spirit Dance Entertainment and Participant Prods. are producing. Individual credits go to producer Ted Kroeber, co-producer Arlene Gibbs of Spirit Dance and executive producers Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan and Holly Becker of IFC along with Jeff Skoll and Chris Adams of Participant, according to a rep for the film.

Harden is repped by ICM and Maryellen Mulcahy at Framework Entertainment.