Uncle Howard is a 2016 documentary film about filmmaker Howard Brookner directed by Aaron Brookner.
Synopsis
Director
Howard Brookner died of
AIDS in NYC in 1989 while in post-production on his breakthrough Hollywood movie. His body of work has been buried for 30 years in William S. Burroughs' bunker until his nephew
Aaron Brookner unearths his story and the memory of everything he was.
Production
Production of
Uncle Howard began in 2012 when
Aaron Brookner began to search for the missing print of the film
Burroughs and
Howard Brookner's wider archives. The search yielded the print of
Burroughs (which, following a
Kickstarter campaign, was digitally remastered and was subsequently re-released by The Criterion Collection and
Janus Films), as well as a wide range of archives that reveal the story of Howard Brookner's life and work.
In February 2013 Uncle Howard (then called Smash The Control Machine) was presented in the Berlinale Talent Project Market, whereupon Jim Jarmusch was announced as executive producer.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack includes songs by
Duke Ellington,
Lotte Lenya, Vision Fortune,
Dev Hynes, Josef Van Wissem,
Mogwai, Younghusband,
Grimm Grimm,
The Pretenders and NEU!. The movie had Barry Hogan, founder of ATP, as a
consultant and Frederic Schindler as
music supervisor.
Release
On December 2, 2015, it was announced that
Uncle Howard would premiere in the US Documentary Competition category at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
It has also been selected to be screened in the Panorama section of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
Critical reception
On review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10.
On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
External links
