The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, the subject of this bittersweet Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary, is a "true American minstrel." During the folk revival in the early '60s, he was hailed as "a mysterious cowboy singer" and "authentic new voice in folk music." Actually, he was a Jewish doctor's son from Brooklyn, and though he is not popularly known, Elliott, a protégé of Woody Guthrie, was an incalculable influence on, most notably, Bob Dylan. Elliott's daughter, Aiyanna, co-wrote and directed this chronicle of her father's "parade of adventures," which unearths a treasure trove of performance footage and offers candid interviews with family and peers. But at the heart of this labor of love is her attempt to come to terms with her elusive father, who was rarely home during her adolescence. In one telling sequence, Elliott takes his daughter on a drive to visit their former home in Mendocino where, he tells her, "we came closest to being a family." But he can't find it. A touching odyssey, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Lee Benson)