Sherman's March (Ross McElwee)
Featured Filmmaker: Ross McElwee
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2h 37m
Directed by Ross McElwee • Documentary • 1986 • 155 minutes
When First Run released Ross McElwee's Sundance Award winning Sherman's March in 1986, it went on to become one of the largest grossing documentaries ever. Audiences and critics alike fell in love with McElwee's "quirky, funny and fascinating" (Newsweek) first-person narratives that would help define a new era of personal documentaries.
After his girlfriend leaves him, McElwee takes a voyage along the original route followed by General William Sherman - but rather than cutting a swath of destruction designed to force the Confederate South into submission, as Sherman did, McElwee searches for love, camera in hand.
In 2000, Sherman' March was chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress National Film Registry as a "historically significant American motion picture." It has won best documentary awards at numerous film festivals, been cited by the National Board of Film Critics as one of the five best films of its year, selected for a Cinéma du Réel retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and chosen as "One of the Top 20 Documentaries of All Time" by the International Documentary Association.
Up Next in Featured Filmmaker: Ross McElwee
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Backyard
Directed by Ross McElwee • Documentary • 1984 • 40 minutes
The result of McElwee turning his camera on his family and their neighbors, the film is a humorous and poignant look at odd moments in a genteel Southern town.
"Backyard is equal parts Samuel Beckett, Jean-Luc Godard and Werner Herzog."...
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Time Indefinite (Ross McElwee)
Directed by Ross McElwee • Documentary • 1993 • 117 minutes
McElwee, Charleen Swansea, and several other memorable characters you met in Sherman's March invite you to pick up their story in Time Indefinite, McElwee's hilariously profound sequel to his much-beloved, critically acclaimed hit.
"Gl...
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Bright Leaves
Directed by Ross McElwee • Documentary • With Ross McElwee, Allan Gurganus, Paula Larke, Marilyn Levine, Emily Madison, Charlleen Swansea, Adrian McElwee, Tom McElwee • 2005 • 105 minutes
McElwee family legend has it that the Hollywood melodrama Bright Leaf starring Gary Cooper as a 19th century...
