Bright Leaves

Bright Leaves is a 2003 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about the association his family had with the tobacco industry. Bright Leaf is the name of a strain of tobacco. It was also the name of a 1949 novel and 1950 feature film about a struggle between two tobacco barons. (Patricia Neal, one of the film's stars, is interviewed.) The struggle depicted in the film, according to McElwee family tradition, parallels the historical one between McElwee's great-grandfather and the patriarch of the Duke family who founded Duke University. The documentary follows McElwee's usual style, where he gives voiceovers to apparently spontaneous footage, making the story more personal.