306 HOLLYWOOD: The Excavation Of An Ordinary, Extraordinary Life

When someone dies, their soul leaves their body and vanishes into the ether. But what we do we do with everything they leave behind? After all, it’s more than just flesh and blood that make a human life. There are souvenirs that have been collected across decades, handwritten notes reminding someone to take out the trash or turn off the light, clothes that serve as artifacts of eras long gone. These are the items the dead leave behind for the living to contend with. Can one just simply throw away the last physical vestiges of a human life without feeling like one is throwing away that entire person, never to be seen again?

That’s the question that sibling filmmaker duo Elanand Jonathan Bogarín wrestle with in 306 Hollywood, a charming documentary that chronicles their attempt to come to terms with the death of their beloved grandmother by conducting an archeological excavation (of sorts) in the New Jersey house she called home for around 70 years. Reminiscent of Wes Anderson in its visual quirkiness, 306 Hollywood fits the life of a seemingly ordinary woman into the grand scheme of history and comes to the conclusion that we all merit a place in it.

A House Full of Memories

Elan and Jonathan introduce us to their beloved grandmother, Annette Ontell, courtesy of ten years of recorded video interviews with her. From the ages of 83-93, Annette – a confident, outspoken fashion designer – holds forth on everything from her long marriage to their already deceased grandfather to the sadness that comes with knowing that you’re the last one left of an entire generation. But then, Annette passes away in 2011, leaving behind the house at 306 Hollywood Avenue in Hillside, NJ and 70 years worth of objects inside.

A self-proclaimed pack rat, Annette held onto decades of tax records, cameras, stockings, and even false teeth. Elan and Jonathan’s mother and Annette’s daughter, Marilyn, encourages the kids to clean out the house and sell it. But Elan and Jonathan hesitate. For their entire lives, they have visited Annette in this house every Sunday and have rarely seen her outside of it; to them, the house and all of its objects are synonymous with their grandmother. If they get rid of everything and sell the house, are they getting rid of the last remnants of Annette as well? Once everything is gone, what of their grandmother will be left besides their videotapes and their memories?

Jonathan thinks back on the time he spent in Rome, surrounded by the vestiges of people long gone. From there, the siblings interview an archaeologist, who describes the house at 306 Hollywood as an archaeological site and everything in it as artifacts that must be excavated. So, much to Marilyn’s incredulous laughter, Elan and Jonathan decide to spend the next 11 months excavating Annette’s house. Why 11 months? A funeral director they interview tells them that is how long Annette’s spirit will remain in the house before it passes on.

Exploring the Past

From here, 306 Hollywood becomes infused with enough magical realism to nearly cross the line from documentary into fairytale. With a giant telescope that they wheel throughout the house, Elan and Jonathan attempt to peer into their family’s past. They rearrange Annette’s objects into elaborate artistic displays organized by theme and color that Wes Anderson would envy and try to figure out the significance of everything Annette kept.

With the discovery of an old cassette tape recording of a family argument, actors appear to lip-sync dialogue and bring long-gone family members back to life in spirit. In one particularly poignant sequence, a fashion conservator performs an autopsy on one of Annette’s beautiful homemade dresses, before dancers dressed in Annette’s clothing – period-appropriate undergarments and all – perform in front of the house.

In another powerful moment, Elan and Jonathan interview the director of the Rockefeller Archive, who shows us how he has preserved the history of this notable family and his own by preserving everything from the layout of the Rockefeller matriarch’s dressing room to his mother’s recipes for holiday cookies. By juxtaposing his own family’s objects with those of the Rockefellers, he reassures the siblings and us that everyone is worth remembering, no matter how significant their place in history.

Some of these imaginative sequences do fall a bit flat. Oddly enough, these are primarily the ones that focus on Elan and Jonathan actually appearing on camera; their onscreen interactions frequently feel too staged and suck the magic out of these moments. The siblings are incredibly talented and creative filmmakers who are best suited to be behind the camera, not in front of it. The sequences in which Elan and Jonathan rely on Annette, her objects, and her home to tell her story are far more powerful, as are the scenes involving their colorful collection of utterly untraditional talking heads. Combined, they create a beautiful and unusual portrait of a life well lived.

306 Hollywood: Conclusion

The colorful, stylistic flourishes of 306 Hollywood makes it stand out among documentaries as something truly unique – an ordinary woman’s life rendered into an extraordinary film.

What do you think? Does 306 Hollywood sound like an appealing alternative take on the documentary form? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

306 Hollywood is released in New York on September 28, 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi_b_VdwazU