Filmmaker Ross McElwee trails characters whose stories have been fodder for television news and takes their tales of loss and longing further than the requisite sound bite. In the process, he examines how the medium works and exposes its limitations.
Direction
McElwee's wandering, self-aware lens finds poetry in strangers.
Writing
Voiceover that questions itself—documentary as confession.
Director
Ross McElwee
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
McElwee shot most of this on Hi8 video while teaching at Harvard, essentially making a film about not making the film he was supposed to make.
Released before reality TV devoured culture, it now plays as prophecy—McElwee saw how we'd all become voyeurs.
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