"Something to Do With the Wall," a new feature documentary from Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine, will be presented Friday, Nov. 17, by the Utah Film & Video Center.
McElwee won the documentary grand prize at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival (then called the United States Film Festival) with his eccentric and highly personal film "Sherman's March," in which he is constantly sidetracked from exploring the historical event of the title as his personal life takes comic twists and turns. Levine is McElwee's wife and a filmmaker in her own right.They conceived "Something to Do With the Wall" as an exploration of the the Cold War, symbolized by the construction of the Berlin Wall when McElwee and Levine were young children. In 1986 they traveled to Germany and interviewed locals who lived in the wall's shadow on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.
At the end of their shooting schedule, they returned to the United States, edited the movie and felt the project was complete when, to the world's surprise, East Germany decided to bring the wall down. So, in 1989, McElwee and Levine returned to Berlin and did follow-up interviews with those they had spoken to earlier.
The result is a unique film odyssey that puts into perspective the wall's place in history and in the lives of those who lived with it for a quarter century.
"Something to Do With the Wall" will be shown in the Salt Lake Art Center auditorium, 20 S. West Temple, Friday at 8 p.m. Admission is $5.
For further information, phone 534-1158.