When his son died aged 27, the director could barely bring himself to watch his old clips of the boy. When at last he did, it was the genesis of an extraordinary project
It feels crass to compliment Ross McElwee on his latest documentary, Remake, because it is not the picture he would ever have chosen to make. It is instead a grief-struck tour de force: a magnificent film about film-making and its real-world repercussions.
McElwee is a film-maker who HAS spun home movies into art, framing himself and his friends and his son, Adrian. The director used to film Adrian for a few minutes each month. He tracked the boy from infancy to adulthood, trying to catch the significant turns of his life. When tragedy struck, it back-shadowed the footage. Maybe every home movie is a ghost story at heart. McElwee filmed Adrian because he loved him, but now fears he might have hurt him. So he sifts through the material in search of clues, addressing his son as though he were still in the room. “I look at the footage to convince myself that you were alive,” he says. “But also to convince myself that you’re gone.”
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