by Ross McElwee
Introduction by Oskar Hallberg
Thursday 8 June 2017
7pm

Bright Leaves (2003), 105min

Bright Leaves describes a journey taken across the social, economic, and psychological tobacco terrain of North Carolina by Ross McElwee, a native Carolinian whose great-grandfather created the famous brand of tobacco known as “Bull Durham.”

Part mystery, part ethical inquiry, this film is a subjective, autobiographical meditation on the allure of cigarettes and their troubling legacy for the state of North Carolina. It’s about loss and preservation, addiction and denial. And it’s about filmmaking – homemovie, documentary, and fiction filmmaking – as the filmmaker fences with the legacy of an obscure 1950′s Hollywood melodrama, purportedly based on his great-grandfather’s life, starring Gary Cooper.

Oskar’s Gold Nuggets is an ongoing series of film screenings where our neighbor and cineaste Oskar Hallberg from Cinema Panora presents a film in dialogue with the current exhibition on view.