Bright Leaves

Bright Leaves

Synopsis

"Part mystery, part ethical inquiry, and part home movie, this brilliant and frequently hilarious documentary explores the cruel twist of fate that has led some to make their fortunes from tobacco, and others to die from it. McElwee returns home to the tobacco farming country of North Carolina to investigate a bit of family lore: that his great-grandfather, who developed the formula for Bull Durham tobacco, might have become very rich had James 'Buck' Duke not stolen the formula from him – a saga that may have been the basis for Michael Curtiz’s Bright Leaf, a 1950 Gary Cooper melodrama." – MOMA