Bright Leaves is a 2003 United States/United Kingdom documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about the association his family had with the tobacco industry. Bright Leaves had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Film

Bright Leaf is the name of a strain of tobacco. It was also the name of a 1949 novel and 1950 feature film about a struggle between two tobacco barons. The struggle depicted in the feature film, according to McElwee family tradition, parallels one between McElwee's great-grandfather and the patriarch of the Duke family, for whom Duke University is named.

Cast

Interviewed as part of this film include Allan Gurganus, Ross McElwee, Tom McElwee, Vlada Petrić, Paula Larke, Marilyn Levine, Emily Madison, Adrian McElwee, Charleen Swansea, and Patricia Neal, the leading lady of the 1950 feature film.

Reception

The documentary follows McElwee's usual style, where he gives voiceovers to apparently spontaneous footage, making the story more personal. According to Roger Ebert: "Bright Leaves is not a documentary about anything in particular. That is its charm. It's a meandering visit by a curious man with a quiet sense of humor, who pokes here and there in his family history and the history of tobacco." Marian Keane, in her essay "Reflections on Bright Leaves", collected in "Three Documentary Filmmakers", asserts that Bright Leaves displays McElwee's extraordinary ability to present "people in their uniqueness", contrasting this with other documentaries where people often "seem to exist in the world of film as if suspended from their relation to their actual lives."

Awards and nominations