Uncle Howard
- Director: Aaron Brookner
- Writer: Aaron Brookner
- Producer: Aaron Brookner; Sara Driver
CGiii Comment
Howard Brookner made 3 films...2 documentaries and a feature...before his premature death.
Burroughs: The Movie was a stunning, bizarre and intimate portrait of the erstwhile beatnik - it started off as a student film and led to much bigger and not necessarily better things.
His follow-up - 4 years later - Robert Wilson & The Civil Wars - about an opera that never got produced, sank without trace and now resides - unseen - in a Hamburg archive.
Finally, his feature...starring Madonna...Bloodhounds on Broadway...is a scrappy film, more TV movie than mainstream feature. Without the lure of Madonna, this film would have disappeared without trace.
To date, Aaron Brookner - his nephew - has made 3 films...this documentary (2016), a relatively un-seen feature (2011) and a short (2004).
According to this film, it was Howard who inspired Aaron to make films...he genuinely sounds rather passionate about film-making...and then you look at his portfolio...squalid (and disappointing) to say the least.
When all else fails...turn to vicarious film-making!
Uncle Howard, for the most part, is by Howard...the first half of the film - really - is an assembled jigsaw puzzle, with all the bits taken from the not-really-lost archive...
There's an accompanying narration...Uncle Howard was my hero...Uncle Howard, like the erstwhile beatnik he so admirably captured on film...was a junkie. Accompanying narration: He didn't look like a junkie...wow, the immaturity of that statement! Only poor junkies look like junkies.
And that is the problem with the film...it's immature, it's plain, good old-fashioned hero worship. Admittedly, in the second half, it does stir up some emotion...that's down to the brevity of Brookner's life...those who survived him...talk candidly about their son, friend, lover and colleague - especially his lover, touching moments indeed.
However, sadly, the film leaves you asking one question: Was Howard Brookner an important filmmaker? Aaron - definitely - thinks so. The film is not entirely convincing.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
When Howard Brookner lost his life to AIDS in 1989, the 35-year-old director had completed two feature documentaries and was in post-production on his narrative debut, Bloodhounds of Broadway. Twenty-five years later, his nephew, Aaron, sets out on a quest to find the lost negative of Burroughs: The Movie, his uncle's critically-acclaimed portrait of legendary author William S. Burroughs. When Aaron uncovers Howard's extensive archive in Burroughs’ bunker, it not only revives the film for a new generation, but also opens a vibrant window on New York City’s creative culture from the 1970s and ‘80s, and inspires a wide-ranging exploration of his beloved uncle's legacy.
Connecting with Howard's friends, lovers, and collaborators (like Jim Jarmusch) through the treasure trove of outtakes and video diaries he discovers, Aaron constructs at once a paean and an elegy to a complex, creative man—cut down, like so many others of his generation, in his prime, but who lived his short life to its fullest.
Cast & Characters
Madonna as Herself;
Jim Jarmusch as Himself;
Andy Warhol as Himself;
William S. Burroughs as Himself;
Sara Driver as Herself;
Allen Ginsberg as Himself;
Howard Brookner as Himself;
John Giorno as Himself;
James Grauerholz as Himself;
Patti Smith as Herself