Remake: A Powerful Reflection of The Past and Present

For almost fifty years, documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee has been releasing autobiographical non-fiction films. His most well-known work, ‘Sherman’s March,’ is a highly influential film in the field. In that film, McElwee explores his inability to find a partner and links it to his fear of a nuclear conflict. It is a march towards coming back home, to the South, where he explores life through his cameras. Forty years after the release of his classic, McElwee’s latest, Remake, is a film that deals with both the past and the present. Setting the stage, the film takes life as a pretext for a remake of his debut feature. In the early stages, it sees Steve Carr, the director of ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop,’ contact McElwee to adapt the classic documentary as a television series. 

McElwee plans to document the making-of, following the process of turning his acclaimed work into a sitcom. In the meantime, he also captures the life of his son, Adrian, who struggles with bipolar disorder and substance abuse. Anchored by the extensive footage of his son, the film serves as both a journey of adaptation, and the comprehension of his son’s issues with addiction. Through his lenses, Ross films his son, his baby. From there, the director utilizes cuts that juxtapose Ross’s former works, such as ‘Sherman’s March,’ with the early days of his son’s life. Fascinatingly enough, the 1985 film has since received a 4K restoration, making for an ideal double feature with this film.

If the classic deals with the director’s difficulty in falling in love, Remake documents the events following Ross falling out of love with his ex-wife, his divorce and how his relationship with his son evolved. In a sense, it is about a different kind of love, a paternal love. For a parent, it is tough to watch one’s son suffer from substance abuse. McElwee emphasizes that by the usage of moments of Adrian’s life, the connection between his new wife cutting his son’s hair, and the footage of him as a child playing, there is a special intention between the past and his present, dealing with the intense pain of manipulating memory. Throughout these dialogues, there is a rawness – an openness to discuss taboos. Adrian specifies the quantity of heroin he used with his ex-girlfriend, the amount of money he spent buying drugs from the Mexican cartels, and his involvement in his dangerous behaviour.

In those scenes, McElwee listens to his son, who has hit the rock bottom stage of his life. This melancholy increases throughout these moments, the juxtapositions of the past and the present, including Adrian’s attempts to follow his father’s path. His videos combine the aesthetics of the late 2000s and early 2010s, the beginning of the trap era, with the usage of party drugs, such as codeine. Inherently, Adrian’s lifestyle interferes with his music videos and recordings, even leading to him recording a documentary about his opioid addiction. Yet, the experience saw him face a series rough consequences when it came to his life, including a worsening of his case.

In the final half hour of Remake, writer-director Ross McElwee pours his heart out to the consequences of his son’s actions. Here, there is a sadness unknown to his classic work. Instead, his latest work is an attempt to free himself from the demons that haunt him, while he eternalizes the image of his son Adrian.

still courtesy of Music Box Films

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.