306 Hollywoodmakes it clear that it is neither a documentary about a famous person, nor one about anything even all that remarkable. In fact, the film revels in its everyday mundanity, for that is where life’s essence lies, and, in this case, where grandma’s heart still beats.
After death, the soul has 11 months to return to where it was happiest in life before leaving this realm, explains a particularly spiritual funeral director in the film. For many recently deceased, that place is home. This notion prompts sibling filmmakers Elan and Jonathan Bogarin to purchase their beloved grandmother’s home.
The two conduct a full-on archeological dig, cataloguing everything from the number of pennies in a Band-Aid tin to the perspiration stains on a blouse. This Warholian approach to piecing together an idol risks becoming an invasive mess, but the Bogarins execute it with such tender grace that it’s impossible to not be touched by their efforts.
Often deviating into surreal territory, their grandmother Annette Ontell inhabits this space, oscillating between spirit and archival footage as she guides her dear grandchildren through their grief. “I’m not living in never neverland, I’m living in this land,” she says, and indeed she is. Forever imbedded in the shag carpeting, the cracks in the ceiling, the pink bathroom tiles, everything is her history. When 306 Hollywoodpeaks, Ontell has splintered into a flock of beautiful young women as they transform the modest yard into a Tchaikovsky ballet, every relic on full display. It is magic.
“I feel like a clump of cells and nothing more,” Ontell remarks of her degraded body. Where do these cells go when we leave this world? They remain here, hovering around us, waiting to be remembered and reassembled, resurrected. 306 Hollywoodis an absolutely gorgeous film that aims to answer the big questions by examining the smallest objects that make up who we are.