Calendar – Past Event

Location: The James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall 1409, UCLA

Co-Curated by Marina Goldovskaya and Samuel B. Prime
A Melnitz Movies and Documentary Salon Co-Presentation

In his latest documentary film, Ross McElwee (SHERMAN'S MARCH, BRIGHT LEAVES) finds himself in frequent conflict with his son, who is no longer the delightful child he loved, but an argumentative young adult who inhabits virtual worlds available through the internet. To McElwee, his son seems to be addicted to and permanently distracted by those worlds. The filmmaker undertakes a journey to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany where he worked for a spring as a wedding photographer's assistant at age 24 - slightly older than his son is now. He has not been back to St. Quay since that visit, and hopes to gain some perspective on what his own life was like when he was his son's age. He also hopes to track down his former employer, a fascinating Frenchman named Maurice, and Maud, a woman with whom he was romantically involved during that spring 38 years ago. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY is a meditation on the passing of time, the praxis of photography and film, digital versus analog, and the fractured love of a father for his son.

Featuring a Q&A with writer/director Ross McElwee, producer Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness, and Adrian McElwee in person!

Official Selection, Venice International Film Festival
Official Selection, Mar Del Plata International Film Festival
Official Selection, Doclisboa International Film Festival

"The result, told with all the spontaneity that only a one-man-band director who is also the film's main subject can manage, is a sad, funny, homespun, often quite moving meditation on the passing of time and the evanescence of recorded memories." -Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

"Absurd as it may sound, [PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY] is possibly [Ross McElwee's] most personal film to date...The camera work and editing are polished, and although he may never know for sure what his story's going to be when he sets out, he shapes it into a final narrative with considerable skill." -Lee Gardner, Baltimore City Paper

Writer/Director: Ross McElwee
Featuring: Ross McElwee, Adrian McElwee
HDCam, 87 min.