Howard Brookner
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“He Was a Chameleon”: Director Aaron Brookner | Uncle Howard
In every film, there is the story that you knew you were telling, the story the audience perceives. But there is always some other story, a secret story. It might be the result of your hidden motivations for making the film, or, instead, the result of themes that only became clear to you after you made the movie. It might be something very personal, or it might be a story you didn’t even know you were telling. What is your film’s secret story? I was aware that my uncle Howard [Brooker, director of Burroughs the Movie, 1983] had many secrets […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 27, 2016 -
DPs Gregg de Domenico and André Döbert on the Howard Brookner Doc, Uncle Howard
Gregg de Domenico has more than 10 years of industry experience as a cinematographer, camera operator and second AC. At Sundance 2016, de Domenico served as co-cinematographer for Uncle Howard, a documentary on filmmaker Howard Brookner and the search for his archival remains of his debut documentary, Burroughs. de Domenico lensed the film with first-time DP André Döbert. In this interview, de Domenico and Döbert discuss the film’s blend of archival and new footage along with other visual challenges. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 26, 2016 -
Structuring Uncle Howard in Production and Post using William Burroughs’s The Western Lands and Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru
One of the earliest challenges in making Uncle Howard was figuring out how to tell a story around a main character who is essentially absent. My uncle, Howard Brookner, was a fairly obscure director, whose work went missing to varying degrees, and who had died some 25 years ago. Yet, to me and others around him, he left a very strong memory and spirit. How to show this? For inspiration, my producer, Paula Vaccaro, and I turned to Howard’s friend and former film subject, William S. Burroughs (Burroughs: The Movie, 1983), whose book, The Western Lands, was the last he wrote before dedicating himself […]
by Aaron Brookner on Jan 26, 2016
