Ross McElwee and the Cambridge Turn

3/30/14 to 4/2/14

Ross McElwee, who studied filmmaking at MIT with pioneers of cinema verité, uses cinema as a means of examining his own life and, along the way, exploring the history of his times. We are delighted to welcome McElwee to Berkeley to screen his films and discuss his career with Scott MacDonald, author of American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn.

Read full description
  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Cambridge Turn: Recent Ethnographic Shorts

    • Wednesday, April 2 7pm

    (U.S./China, 2007-10). Scott MacDonald in person. Films by innovative Sensory Ethnography Lab contributors-Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Hell Roaring Creek, J.P. Sniadecki's Songhua, and Stephanie Spray's Untitled-as well as Cambridge veteran's Alfred Guzzetti's Still Point. Followed by a booksigning. (78 mins)

  • Photographic Memory

    • Tuesday, April 1 7pm

    Ross McElwee (U.S., 2011). Ross McElwee and Scott MacDonald in conversation. When McElwee finds himself increasingly exasperated by his son's addiction to technology, he decides to revisit his own youth, retracing a trip to France he made in his early twenties. A poetic meditation on looking back in order to move forward. (84 mins)

  • Backyard & Other Autobiographical Shorts

    • Sunday, March 30 2:30pm

    (U.S., 1982–2012). Ross McElwee, Robb Moss, and Scott MacDonald in conversation. Ross McElwee's Backyard fashioned a new kind of documentary voice-wry, witty, subtle, often poignant. Presented with Alfred Guzzetti's Time Exposure and Robb Moss's rarely screened film about a Grand Canyon rafting trip, Riverdogs. (82 mins)