Time Indefinite

McElwee truly captivated me throughout this cinematic journey. Never had I seen anything so raw, so real, and unafraid to expose truth with not only commentary and reflections on his past but documented footage to back up these various themes his is trying to convey to an audience. He does this by giving us footage of various life events, such as family reunions, his own wedding, discussions with his film teacher about male/female relationships, and even accompanying his wife to the gynecologist. 

Something that really caught my attention was his willingness to show such real footage of his dying grandmother. It gave me perspective on life. How life can be horrifying, but we shouldn't be afraid to face it. I think that at times it made me uncomfortable, in the scenes when McElwee accompanies his wife to the gynecologist, or visits his visibly decaying grandmother. But life is uncomfortable, and usually we face these things alone, not publicly or with an audience. It was cool because all the while he was exposing these truths, he is also exposing the audience, at least for me personally, my inner fears and looming questions. 

There is so much personality and humor throughout. The characters in the movie, especially Charleen, could not even be made up. When McElwee goes on a date that Charleen sets him up with, she is horrified when he shows up and still has the camera rolling, exclaiming something along the lines of "this is real life, not art!" This theme of real life and art remains consistent throughout. There remains this ambiguous line between the two. The birth of his son somehow clears this up for him because he feels that through life there is a powerful and intuitive interconnectedness.

McElwee becomes a bit obsessive about death during his quest in discovering some truth. He spent i believe six of his thirty roles of film on a children's cemetary in Mexico. He  excessively films the aftermath of the death of his father, the dying state of his grandmother, Charleen's loss of her husband, and of course the unfortunate event of a miscarriage. I think that by exposing these truth's, he is bringing about a consciousness that all of us share, that in the end of time, death is our only constant. That this is our ultimate destination, regardless of age or space or time. I think that is where so much pain and suffering is sustained, that we only have a short time to live, and people are in denial, that by discussing death in all its tragedy can somehow enlighten us.