Documentary-maker Ross McElwee has turned his camera on personal tragedy in his latest project, Remake. The film follows the death of his 27-year-old son, Adrian, who died from a fentanyl overdose in the bathroom of McElwee’s Boston home after struggling with opioid addiction and deteriorating mental health.
Initially, McElwee had planned a different documentary about a Hollywood producer’s attempt to adapt his 1986 film, Sherman’s March. Following his son’s death, McElwee halted production for a year before deciding to preserve the original concept as an absurd counterbeat to his family’s grief.
Sifting through an archive of home movies
McElwee spent decades filming Adrian from infancy to adulthood. In Remake, the director sifts through this archive, confronting the tension between documenting life and living it. He questions whether filming his son throughout his life might have had a corrosive effect or contributed to his struggles.
“There was no evidence for me that my films were a problem for him,” McElwee said, while acknowledging the inherent conflict between parental responsibility and artistic compulsion. “You have the camera, which means you have the power and other people don’t.”
Parallels in documentary film-making
The themes of consent and family documentation are echoed by British film-maker Victoria Mapplebeck, director of the 2004 documentary Motherboard, which chronicled two decades of single motherhood alongside her son, Jim. Mapplebeck noted that children of film-makers often provide consent because they recognize what the project means to the parent, adding complexity to the dynamic between personal lives and public art.
Letting life be life
At 79, McElwee admits the compulsion to film has faded. While he has attended family gatherings where he previously would have captured footage, he has chosen to step back.
Reflecting on a quote from his 1986 feature Sherman’s March—where a former teacher demanded he turn off his camera because “this isn’t art, this is life”—McElwee expressed a desire to let life proceed without attempting to convert it into cinema.
