The death of his son causes McElwee, an autobiographical filmmaker, to look back on his life’s work. He eventually turns to his archive of home movies. To what extent did his camera affect their relationship when Adrian was alive? To what extent does it define that relationship now that he is gone? Meanwhile, an effort to adapt McElwee’s first feature, Sherman’s March, into a work of fiction lurches along, giving the filmmaker another perspective from which to meditate on movie making and mortality.
The Garden Cinema View:
One of the most innovative and personal American filmmakers, Ross McElwee, reflects on the death of his son Adrian. The result is wretchedly moving and deeply philosophical.
A pioneer of essayistic and memory-driven documentaries, McElwee's body of work combines intimate recordings of friends and family, personal reflections, and ties them to wider political contexts. In Remake, he uses the same methods to honour the life, mourn the loss, and contemplate his potential responsibility for his son's addiction. A complex piece of work - intercepting a Hollywood producer's attempt to remake his most famous documentary - which is also a commentary on the film industry and a meditation on the passage of time.
By interweaving all these threads McElwee draws a fully-fledged portrait of his son's character - a mix of intelligence, vulnerability and independence - and also a remarkably fair account of their relationship. Did his obsession with documenting every aspect of his personal life play a role in his son's sense of isolation? He will never know but - ironically - he can't help processing his feelings of grief, anger and joy through more obsessive filmmaking, and by revisiting his own earlier work.
