POV Presents Ross McElwee’s Remake, an Intimate Reflection on Grief, Memory, and the Images We Leave Behind
.webp)
Press Release
Premieres Monday, September 7, 2026 on PBS Television Nationwide and Streaming on PBS.org and the PBS App Through November 7, 2026
Trailer • Download Press Photos • #RemakeFilmPBS
Brooklyn, N.Y. — August 27, 2026 — POV, the multi-Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning independent nonfiction film series, presents Remake, directed and produced by pioneering filmmaker Ross McElwee and produced by Mark Meatto. Drawing from decades of family footage, some filmed by McElwee and some by his son Adrian, the documentary—which had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where it received the Golden Globes Impact Prize for Documentary— chronicles a father confronting the death of his son and the complicated process of holding on while learning to let go. As McElwee revisits the images that captured Adrian throughout his life, Remake becomes an intimate reflection on grief, memory, and the enduring bond between father and son.
Praised as “one of the year’s best documentaries” by The Boston Globe’s Odie Henderson, Remake will make its national broadcast premiere on POV nationwide Monday, September 7, 2026 at 10pm/9C on PBS Television (check local listings) as part of the series’ 39th season. The film will be available to stream on the PBS App through November 7, 2026. For nearly four decades, POV has been America's longest-running nonfiction series, and a home for independent documentaries bringing award-winning stories that challenge assumptions, deepen understanding and inspire meaningful conversation.
McElwee’s deeply personal approach to filmmaking has influenced generations of nonfiction storytellers. Beginning with his landmark 1986 documentary Sherman's March—widely regarded as one of the most influential personal documentaries ever made—he established a singular cinematic voice that continues to resonate today. With Remake, McElwee confronts one of the most profound losses of his life, reconsidering his relationship with Adrian and what a lifetime of filming the people he loves means after they are gone.
Warmth and humor run throughout Remake. Interwoven with Adrian’s lively presence is the lingering shadow of an abandoned Hollywood adaptation of Sherman’s March, which allows McElwee’s characteristic dry humor to emerge. This thread adds another dimension to the film’s exploration of unfinished stories, the passage of time, and the ways cinema can reshape our understanding of the past.
Long before smartphones and social media made constant documentation of family life commonplace, McElwee was recording his family with remarkable candor. Remake raises timely questions about the role cameras play in family life. The film considers what it means to record a child’s life, preserve those memories and share intimate family moments publicly—questions that have become increasingly relevant in an era when so much of everyday life unfolds on camera.
“My film is first and foremost about a father’s love for his son, and the fragile bond that camera created between us,” said Ross McElwee, director of Remake. “It represents both my attempt to hold onto my son, and to let him go. But Remake also offers a personal perspective on how the opioid crisis was allowed to reach its present level—one million U.S. deaths and counting. I would hope the film offers solace to folks who have lost loved ones to addiction, or at least reminds them that they are not alone as they learn to live with loss.”
Adrian's story quietly illuminates the devastating human toll of the opioid epidemic, a crisis that has claimed more than one million lives in the United States. Rather than examining the crisis through statistics, Remake grounds its impact in one family’s experience of love, loss and memory.
“Ross McElwee has spent his career pushing the boundaries of personal documentary filmmaking, turning the camera inward while continually asking larger questions about how we understand ourselves and one another,” said Chris White, Executive Producer, POV. “In Remake, that body of work takes on profound new meaning as Ross confronts the death of his son. The result is a courageous and deeply affecting film, and we’re honored to bring this important work to POV audiences.”
Remake has garnered widespread critical acclaim. The film went on to receive the Beeld & Geluid REframe Award at the 2025 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) before making its North American premiere at the 2026 True/False Film Fest, where McElwee was also honored with the festival's prestigious True Vision Award for his lasting contributions to nonfiction filmmaking.
Remake is a Giant Squid Films production in association with Impact Partners, a Music Box Films release. Ross McElwee is the director, and McElwee and Mark Meatto are the producers. Cinematography is by Ross McElwee and Adrian McElwee. The Editors are Ross McElwee and Joe Bini, and the Sound Editor is Alex Loew. The Executive Producers are Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jenny Raskin, Regina K. Skully, Brynn Kelly, Ian Darling, Adam & Melony Lewis, Mark Meatto, and Ross McElwee. The Co-Executive Producers are Chris Boeckmann, Elizabeth King, Michael Steiner, and Kelsey Koenig.
Credits
Director: Ross McElwee
Producers: Ross McElwee, Mark Meatto
Participants/Cast: Adrian McElwee, Ross McElwee, Charleen Swansea
Cinematographers: Ross McElwee, Adrian McElwee
Editors: Ross McElwee, Joe Bini
Writer: Ross McElwee
Sound Editor: Alex Loew
Executive Producers: Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jenny Raskin, Regina K. Skully, Brynn Kelly, Ian Darling, Adam & Melony Lewis, Mark Meatto, Ross McElwee, Erika Dilday, Chris White
Co-Executive Producers: Chris Boeckmann, Elizabeth King, Michael Steiner, Kelsey Koenig
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2025
Remake will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real-time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.
About the Filmmakers
Ross McElwee, Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor, Remake
Ross McElwee is an American documentary filmmaker whose work blends autobiography, cultural observation, and humor. His breakthrough film Sherman’s March won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize(1987). McElwee has made ten feature-length documentaries, which have premiered at such film festivals as Berlin, Cannes, and Venice three times. He has received numerous career honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Pennebaker Award. In 2005, MoMA presented a full retrospective of his work, later shown in Paris, Seoul, Quito, Madrid, and Moscow. His films include 1980, Charleen; 1982, Backyard; 1986, Sherman’s March; 1989, Something to Do with the Wall; 1991, Time Indefinite; 1996, Six O’Clock News; 2003, Bright Leaves; 2009, In Paraguay; and 2011, Photographic Memory.
Mark Meatto, Producer, Remake
Mark Meatto is a documentary producer and editor based in New York. He produced Remake alongside filmmaker Ross McElwee, a collaboration that began over two decades ago when Meatto co-edited McElwee's Bright Leaves. Together they co-founded Giant Squid Films and Little Field Films, the production and archive home for McElwee's work. Alongside Remake, Meatto produced the newly restored Sherman's March, McElwee's landmark 1986 film, timed to Remake's theatrical release. His other producing credits include Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Sundance, HBO) and the forthcoming eight-part series The Yankees Win (ESPN/Disney).
About
About POV
Building on five 2026 News & Documentary Emmy® nominations, POV remains one of the most highly-acclaimed documentary series in broadcast and streaming. Recent honors include a 2026 Emmy® win for The Ride Ahead (POV Season 38), a 2024 Emmy® win for Eat Your Catfish (POV Season 37), a 2023 Emmy® win for The Last Out (POV Season 36), and a Peabody Award for While We Watched (POV Season 36), marking the eleventh consecutive year a POV film has been nominated for a Peabody and its 28th win. Additional recognition includes an IDA Documentary Award win for Best Curated Series in 2022 and nominations in that category for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025) and the inclusion of seven POV films in Indiewire’s “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). Across its history, POV films and projects have garnered more than 108 News & Documentary Emmy® nominations and won 53 Emmy Awards®, 29 Peabody Awards, 17 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film.
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television presenting films on PBS since 1988 that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of and behind the camera. The series has introduced generations of viewers to groundbreaking work from filmmakers including Laura Poitras, Jonathan Demme, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay, and to landmark films such as Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), A House Made of Splinters (2022) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Since its launch in 2018, POV Shorts has expanded the series’ commitment to short-form storytelling, with films including A Broken House recognized on the Academy Award® shortlist. Extending beyond broadcast, POV engages audiences through streaming on PBS platforms, free educational resources and a nationwide community network that sparks dialogue around urgent social issues. Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.
About PBS
PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 36 million adults on linear primetime television, 16 million users on PBS-owned streaming platforms, 56 million viewers on YouTube, and 10 million followers on social media, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, and public affairs and to take front-row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. As the number one educational media brand, PBS KIDS helps children 2-8 build critical skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality content on TV — including a PBS KIDS channel — and streaming free on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app, games on the PBS KIDS Games app, and in communities across America. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS LearningMedia for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on X.
About American Documentary, Inc.
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. A catalyst for public culture, AmDoc develops collaborative strategic engagement initiatives around socially relevant content across television, digital platforms and in community settings, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and civic participation. AmDoc’s programming includes its multi–Emmy®, Oscar®, and Peabody Award–winning flagship series POV, the Oscar® and Emmy® winning POV Shorts, and America ReFramed. As part of its ongoing digital expansion, AmDoc is extending the reach of its work through expanded documentary programming on YouTube, connecting independent documentary storytelling with broader audiences and evolving how public media reaches viewers today. Follow @americandocumentary on social media.
Major funding for POV is provided by the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Acton Family Giving, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.