Ross McElwee Honors the Memory of His Late Son by Chronicling Their On-Screen Relationship

Long before the video diary became the en vogue format of personal expression on YouTube and social media platforms like TikTok, Ross McElwee was America's preeminent first-person filmmaker. While studying under cinéma vérité pioneers Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus in MIT's graduate film program, McElwee developed his own style of memoir cinema informed by direct cinema, a Southern literary sensibility ingrained fromhis North Carolina upbringing, and an almost religious belief in elevating the mundane texture of daily life, previously the province of amateur home movies, to a large artistic canvas. His droll voiceover, which warmly blankets and contextualizes his imagery, provides viewers an entrée into an worldview effortlessly engaged with culture, politics, and the smallest details of his private life. Read more.