North Carolina produces more tobacco than any other state in America. This film describes a journey taken across the social, economic, and psychological tobacco terrain of North Carolina by a native Carolinian whose great-grandfather created the famous brand of tobacco known as “Bull Durham.” Bright Leaves is a subjective, autobiographical meditation on the allure of cigarettes and their troubling legacy for the state of North Carolina. It’s about loss and preservation, addiction and denial. And it’s about filmmaking—home-movie, documentary, and fiction filmmaking—as the filmmaker fences with the legacy of an old Hollywood melodrama that is purportedly based on his great-grandfather’s life. Bright Leaves explores the notion of legacy and the complications that result when the legacy is a Southern one and is tied to tobacco.