With most of the films I saw at the NZ International Film Festival this year, I had almost no context going in. I only picked two films to watch, so I relied on my usher schedule to dictate what else I would write about.
McElwee directed Sherman’s March, a documentary I have been meaning to see for years.
Whenever I get to it, this film is going to hang over it. Indeed, this film will loom over his entire career.
Remake is based around an attempt to adapt Sherman’s March into a feature film, and the death of Ross’s son Adrian (1989-2016), whose life had been partially documented through his father’s work.
A reflection on Ross’ss career, and relationship with his family, Remake is made up of footage from his previous films, and footage his son shot for his own unfinished project.
Filmmaking is about control and choice - what we show and what we do not.
In going through his footage, and his motivations behind his choices, the filmmaker is trying to reckon with his career, and his relationship with his son.
Halfway through the film, it begins to condense in time, moving through all the footage Ross has covering the year leading up to his son’s death.
The ellipses of the footage mirror Ross’s sense of loss and desire to know more about his son’s internal life, and the life that was not captured on camera.
One sequence of Adrian’s footage included is a to-camera monologue his son shot, a familiar format for addressing the viewer - however, the younger McElwee forgot to record sound. So all we have is Adrian silently mouthing words at us - another avenue into knowing denied.
Another sequence is made up of extended POV shots his son recorded while skiing.
Ross says it gives him a stronger sense of alignment - when Adrian/the camera stops in a clearing to survey the surroundings, Ross, as narrator, hypothesising on his son’s train of thought.
The elder McElwee shows some fear that his camera turned his son into an object, and put him at a distance from his family - now this footage is all he has.
Ross’s narration, the last element, the filmmaker’s attempt to provide context and understand, is ultimately a document of helplessness, regret and self-interrogation
As the film progresses, the lack of footage filmed by Ross himself becomes a metaphor for the changing relationship between parent and child - his son made his own choices, and he grew up into someone else.
A reflection on time, regret, and human subjectivity, Remake is a quietly devastating work - an act of cinematic self-laceration that by its very specificity, reaches toward a deeper human truth, one that haunts its filmmaker (and the viewer): the ultimate unknowability of the individual human experience.
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