Uncle Howard

(Aaron Brookner/2016/USA & UK)

Part documentary, part family memoir Uncle Howard looks at the life and career of Howard Brookner. A film director in the 1980’s who made his mark with his portrayal of writer William S. Burroughs in the film Burroughs: The Movie, Brookner’s star shone bright in the artistic community of New York City but for a tragically short time. His nephew Aaron Brookner begins with the discovery of part of his archives, stored in The Bunker, Burroughs old residence in New York. Jim Jarmusch, sound recordist on the Burroughs movie, assists in examining what’s been found whilst recounting tales from the time of making that film. He opens a film reel canister and sniffs, “Smells okay, I think this one’s good”. It’s moments like this that compel you to watch and Brookner’s tale, with the search for lost footage and notebooks, becomes a metaphor for the importance of preserving culture and art that might otherwise disappear into the ether. Shots of Brookner’s nephew with Tom DiCillo or Brad Gooch, Brookner’s partner, watching the old reels and the emotions elicited give testament to this. The film is not just a memoir; it’s about the importance of memoirs.

Anyone half interested in the Beats will find a lot in the first half hour to engage them as lost scenes flicker by of Burroughs and others in various NYC haunts. The footage of Ginsberg and Burroughs on a rooftop, arms around shoulders as Burroughs recites and gets wrong the opening lines to Howl are particularly poignant. There’s conversation with avant garde theatre director Robert Wilson who was the focus of Brookners second film and there’s on set footage and more interviews and recollections from his third film Bloodhounds of Broadway. But Aaron Brookner’s narration on his uncle and the impact the man had on his own life paired with old home movie footage of the family together raise this beyond a mere documentary of a long lost film maker. We get a slice of the man on a personal, intimate level. The warmth of his memories combined with the affection and warmth also of the people who worked with and befriended him all those years ago culminate to betray exactly what a huge loss it was when Howard Brookner passed. The names of the people involved, Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver and Tom DiCillo and the work they’ve gone on to do can only make you wonder what might have been if Howard Brookner had lived. More importantly though, it might encourage you to seek out his films and revisit them.

(3/5)