Bright Leaves

North Carolina produces more tobacco than any other stat in America. ‘Bright Leaves’ describes a journey taken across the social, economic, and psychological tobacco terrain of North Carolina by McElwee whose great-grandfather created the famous tobacco brand know as “Bull Durham”. The film is a subjective, autobiographical meditation on the allure of cigarettes and their troubling legacy for the state of North Carolina. It’s about loss and preservation, addiction and denial. And it’s about filmmaking as the filmmaker fences with the legacy of an obscure Hollywood melodrama that is purportedly based on his great-grandfather’s life.