Pilgrim, Farewell - Filmmaker in person

Pilgrim, Farewell revisits themes of Dying, but inverts the drama. There is no outward anger displayed by the people in Dying who are, in fact, dying. Whereas it was the dying man’s wife who was angry in the earlier film, for this narrative of a young woman dying, it is she who is furious at her family and the world. Co-produced by American Playhouse, the film would play festivals and receive very positive reviews when broadcast on PBS. Having not made a narrative film in two decades, and in need of raising money to make the film, Roemer conceived of a project that he could not be stopped from making. Staged minimally, in one setting with a small cast, Pilgrim, Farewell could be called a four-hander or chamber piece, but more elegantly described as a small symphony. It too remains virtually unseeable.