DANDY UNCLE PETER AND ME is about the bond between the filmmaker, Myra Paci, and Peter Bullough, an octogenarian British pathologist and art collector in Winchester, Virginia. Over the course of a decade, as Peter goes from weight-lifting dandy to his death from leukemia, Myra chronicles the waxing and waning of their friendship and the reasons for his strained relationship with her family. When she urges him to launch a young artists’ residency in his two adjacent homes with the art, rare books, and medical oddities he’s collected since his childhood, the film explores whether it’s relationships or objects that define us.

 

Written, Directed and Filmed by Myra Paci

Edited and Co-Written by Richard Levien

Produced by Myra Paci and Richard Levien

"I found the film very moving. Like making sense of an old family scrapbook with blank spaces and untitled photos. I found myself wondering about things just before the film answered them. I think that's the sign of a really good film."

Gary McKendry, Writer/Director, "Killer Elite", "Everything in this Country Must" (Academy-Award nominated)

“I enjoyed it and found it always involving...Despite the apparent focus on Peter, I can’t help but feel the film is really about the filmmaker and her family. ”

Carter Burwell, Composer, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", "Carol", "No Country for Old Men"

“Losses force you to confront yourself and know yourself. Art is an antidote to loss; it benefits the artist and anyone else who comes into contact with it. This film reminds me of Sara Polley’s "Stories We Tell" because it asks ‘Whose version is the truth?’”

Samantha Grant, Director/Producer, "A Fragile Trust", "Daughters of the Forest"

“How the film is shot and edited is stunning. I didn’t want the whole sexual thing defused.”

Douglas J. Cuomo, Composer, "Sex and the City", "Homicide: Life on the Streets", "Doubt"

“ The film talks about the family the filmmaker created with her queer uncle Peter, and begs the question, ‘can we be fully ourselves, not be put in boxes?’”

Nancy Kates, Director, "Regarding Susan Sontag"; "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin"

“Lusciously filmed. Poetically paced. The central character reminded me of Quentin Crisp, and the bond between him and the filmmaker’s father has a tender, homoerotic component."

Norman Bonney, Cinematographer, "Miss Representation", "Speed and Angels"

"This film asks whether we can come to a point of resolution, acceptance and grace with those we love."

Andrew Peterson, Executive Director at FilmNorth, festival programmer and producer