Uncle Howard

Uncle Howard is a heartwarming and poignant documentary film that was released in 2016. The movie features Aaron Brookner as the director, who embarks on a determined journey to reclaim and restore 'Burroughs: The Movie', a documentary about renowned author William S. Burroughs that was directed by his late Uncle Howard Brookner. Uncle Howard serves as an enduring tribute to Howard Brookner's life and works, as well as a homage to New York City’s art scene in the late 70s and 80s.

The documentary opens ceremiously by transporting the audience back to 1978, a time where crack was king, and music was a lifeline. Today, the streets may look different, but the stories those walls could tell if they could speak, have been annotated by history. For the burgeoning filmmaker Howard Brookner, it was the ground zero of his artistic creativity. Fresh from film school at NYU, he embarked on his first feature, a documentary about the writer William S. Burroughs. Vividly captured is an era when New York was a nirvana for avant-garde artists, including poets like Allen Ginsberg and John Giorno, who feature in the film.

Uncle Howard progresses as Aaron Brookner begins to dig into Howard's life. He uncovers not only the precious footage of Howard's landmark documentary but also, 'Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars,' Howard's never completed documentary about the theatre director Robert Wilson. Howard’s footprints are traced to the iconic Beat Hotel, Paris; from there, the story of Uncle Howard and his friends evolves. Director Aaron Brookner, driven and focussed, painstakingly collates these inspiring footages into compelling glimpses of his uncle’s life and work, capturing past moments with clear-eyed nostalgia.

In capturing the life and times of Howard Brookner, the film also offers a piercing insight into the world of New York City during the late 1970s and '80s. The era, which was not only renowned for punk music and the emergence of new wave cinema, was also plagued by an onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, which affected countless lives, including Howard. His own tragic death from AIDS in 1989 cut short a promising career that had already produced three films.

The film is studded with appearances from noteworthy personalities like Jim Jarmusch, who was Howard's classmate at NYU. Jarmusch’s reminiscences about that period offer an additional layer of depth to the story, immersing viewers in this pivotal cultural period. Jarmusch stands as sentinel to the past, guiding Aaron Brookner, and through him, the audience, towards understanding this vibrant epoch of artistic flowering that was tragically extinguished prematurely. In that, Uncle Howard is more than a biographical document; it is a profound, tender elegy to a vibrant era of New York City, its artists, and an incredible filmmaker who documented it ardently.

A large part of the film unfolds through the preserved footage of Howard Brookner's works, mingled with photo mosaics, voiceovers, and snippets from correspondences, immersing you in his world. These visual narrative styles culminate into an evocative, emotionally resonant exploration of a visionary filmmaker's life, his dreams, and his aspirations. His spirit, coupled with the indomitable artistic fervor of the times, serves as the beating heart of the film.

In Uncle Howard, Aaron Brookner gives us a film that has a beating pulse of an artist’s zeal, which straddles the lines between a family memoir and a cultural documentary. He supplements the lost narratives about his Uncle Howard, unearthing the forgotten history along the way. More than just a personal homage, the film captures the enigmatic intimacy of knowing a person posthumously through artefacts and people's memories, making it transcend beyond its initial premise.

As a loving dedication, Uncle Howard gracefully portrays Aaron Brookner’s journey to understand and reclaim his uncle’s artistic legacy. However, what sets it apart is its ability to expertly narrate a piece of cultural history, shedding light on the vibrant New York arts scene and LGBTQ+ experiences at a time of significant societal upheaval. It's a film of rediscovery, a touching family album, and a significant cultural time-capsule, all under one cinematic spectacle.

Ultimately, Uncle Howard is as much about the person behind the camera as it is about the subjects in front of it. The film serves as a testament to Howard Brookner’s remarkable spirit, explored through a deeply personal lens. The movie is a beautiful fusion of the past and the present, blurring the lines in a powerful narrative filled with nostalgia, emotion, loss, and love. It succeeds in capturing both the life of its subject and the mood of an era.