52docs / 29 - Filmed life

We haven’t had a new film from Ross McElwee for 15 years, so his latest project is landing in a very different world to the earlier work, but what hasn’t changed is the deeply personal nature of his filmmaking and the way it continues to resonate, despite seemingly everyone now documenting their own lives.

I’ll admit that Sherman’s March had a big impact on me. Somewhere I still have the dvd (purchased on a recommendation by Marc Isaacs) and an abiding memory that often the film a filmmaker thinks they're making isn’t the one they end up with.

To prepare myself a few weeks ago I watched Bright Leaves, and I might try and rewatch A Photographic Memory, but apparently this week’s film stands on its own.

As the father of a son and the son of a father I’m kind of bracing for impact, but by all accounts it’s a journey worth taking.

Interview with the filmmaker

Trailer

Watch on PBS from tomorrow or rent