361:) in New York and immediately said he'd take it. I wanted to shop around a bit, because it's a very small company and I wanted to see what else was available. I got turned down by every other middle-range distributor. I didn't even bother to go to the studios or the major distribution outlets. First Run Features was the only company willing to take a chance on it and, in fact, it did terrifically well. According to their statistics, until
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450:— rough, real-life documentary filmmaking that seeks to expose a subject's soul through its very lack of polish. In McElwee's case, that subject is almost always himself. Insistently personal, always autobiographical, occasionally exploitative, watching McElwee is like watching someone's (well-financed)
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said—somewhat seriously, somewhat joking—'You should use the camera as a way to meet women.' She's sincerely upset about my having ended my relationship with my girlfriend, and she's looking for ways to get me back on my feet. ...t the point when she gave me her advice about how to use
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I was almost always ready to shoot. I kept the camera within reaching distance, sometimes balanced on my shoulder ... Even between major portraits, when I was on the road, I was totally open to filming whatever might happen in a gas station or in a restaurant, or wherever. So in one sense you can
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is simultaneously very revealing and somewhat mysterious: the candidness of the scenes is frequently startling, but the more the film — and McElwee-as-narrator — reveals, the more we realize that there are many aspects of the relationships he is recording that we are not privy to. We
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with just a $ 9,000 grant (equivalent to $ 25,496 in 2023), and began conducting mostly impromptu interviews. "Pretty much I always walked in on them," he said, characterizing his methods. "I guess what my conversations have that conventional interviews don't is a serendipitous quality, and
197:". A romantic breakup that the director experienced before filming made it difficult for him to separate personal from professional concerns, however, shifting his focus to create a more personal story about the women in his life, romance, and religion. Other themes include the threat of
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I was just learning to shoot as a one-person crew. I was just getting over that odd sense of camera shyness in reverse. It takes a while to summon the gumption to shoot people you know well, to be able to face them and talk to them as you're filming. Also, I was using a
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called McElwee a "film maker-anthropologist with a rare appreciation for the eccentric details of our edgy civilization," and the film both "a timely memoir of the 80's" and "a very cheerful recollection of the kind of self-searching, home-movie documentaries that
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The film follows a repetitive narrative pattern; McElwee becomes enamored with various women, eventually developing feelings for each of his subjects, only to have his romantic hopes dashed. McElwee stated it’s a personal essay blending fiction and nonfiction.
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emotional charge that has something to do with the personal connection between the subject and the film-maker. I never came with a list of questions." The film ultimately cost $ 75,000 (equivalent to $ 212,469 in 2023) to complete.
305:" and the film "like a series of variations on loneliness, funny and sad" but "never self-pitying," "sustain its loopy absurdist tone, reveling in the post-Civil War ironies of the misunderstood Sherman, identifying with them."
385:'s) hopes, concerns, nightmares; and we are behind the camera with McElwee as he uses the film-making process to forge new relationships and to revise previously important relationships. As is true in many literary
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came along it was their top-grossing film. It's supposed to be the tenth-highest grossing feature documentary of all time. Isn't that incredible? I could never have imagined it being that kind of a film.
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comes from the way McElwee, in his roundabout way, completes the portrait of
Sherman he originally set out to achieve", but considered it too long, especially given its poor technical quality.
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I used a miniature Nagra SN, a very highly developed piece of recording equipment that could fit on my belt. This technological improvement made shooting much easier.
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Documentary Film and the
Discourse of Hysterical/Historical Narrative ." Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video
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magazine, reviewing the film's then-newly released DVD, gave it three stars out of five, saying that it "looks and sounds like its [
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Sherman's March: A Meditation on the
Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation
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469:] from 1986, but no amount of dirt and noise (and there's some here and there) can diffuse any of the film's magic."
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deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the
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4, a very large tape recorder: it weighs 20 pounds and I carried it slung over my shoulder. For
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lasted about five months, and McElwee estimated that he shot about 25 hours of footage:
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MacDonald, Scott (Summer 1988). "Southern
Exposure: An Interview with Ross McElwee".
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McElwee initially planned to make a film about the effects of
General
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List of films and television shows about the
American Civil War
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Initially, McElwee thought the film would be a "synthesis of
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Scott MacDonald wrote in his introduction to a summer 1988
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Sundance Film
Festival Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary
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and the legacy and complexity of
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668:The Essay Film: From Mantaigne, After Marker
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670:(1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
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997:Brows Held High's take on the 1986 doc
749:Insdorf, Annette (September 7, 1986).
446:proclaims McElwee "a modern master of
283:count all that time as 'filming time.'
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618:Canby, Vincent (September 5, 1986).
1176:Silverlake Life: The View from Here
1525:English-language independent films
1520:Autobiographical documentary films
1515:English-language documentary films
259:the camera, I experienced a minor
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1480:Films set in Georgia (U.S. state)
751:"When Film Makers Play It By Ear"
478:Everything Everywhere All At Once
250:," but the day after filming the
217:McElwee called his previous film
1200:Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
795:Hunt, Paula (January 7, 1994).
1465:Films directed by Ross McElwee
906:Gonzales, Ed (April 2, 2004).
712:University of California Press
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1249:Long Night's Journey into Day
927:Lee, Chris (April 13, 2022).
873:Hardwig, Jay (6 April 1998).
1505:1980s English-language films
1485:Films shot in South Carolina
908:"Sherman's March DVD review"
653:Wayne State University Press
401:wrote that the "richness of
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1031:Beirut: The Last Home Movie
358:Independent Feature Project
107:September 5, 1986
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1305:Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
895:– via filmvault.com.
666:Corrigan, Timothy (2011).
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768:Carr, Jay (1985-11-13).
546:New Georgia Encyclopedia
389:, McElwee's approach in
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179:William Tecumseh Sherman
153:written and directed by
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1168:A Brief History of Time
527:American Film Institute
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830:"Sherman's March (NR)"
797:"McElwee's March (NR)"
647:Fischer, Lucy (1998).
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828:(December 25, 1986).
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1510:1980s American films
1337:How to Die in Oregon
1297:God Grew Tired of Us
1265:Daughter from Danang
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862:. December 27, 2000.
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1345:The House I Live In
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835:The Washington Post
801:MovieMaker Magazine
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157:. It was awarded a
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887:on January 4, 2001
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625:The New York Times
578:Sundance Institute
349:First Run Features
298:called McElwee a "
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123:Running time
100:Release date
84:Ross McElwee
76:Ross McElwee
68:Ross McElwee
60:Ross McElwee
52:Ross McElwee
43:Ross McElwee
452:home videos
321:Jim McBride
303:Woody Allen
248:Space Coast
201:amidst the
199:nuclear war
127:155 minutes
73:Narrated by
57:Produced by
39:Directed by
1460:1986 films
1454:Categories
1422:The Exiles
1407:Boys State
1222:Frat House
1140:H-2 Worker
1094:Style Wars
841:2010-10-06
811:2011-11-30
781:2019-09-23
551:2023-10-07
505:References
213:Production
173:Background
146:is a 1986
111:1986-09-05
49:Written by
1359:Rich Hill
1102:Seventeen
962:from the
728:0015-1386
714:: 13–23.
634:0362-4331
409:Accolades
288:Reception
191:Carolinas
183:Civil War
169:in 2000.
33:DVD cover
1329:Restrepo
493:See also
261:epiphany
244:Backyard
219:Backyard
203:Cold War
189:and the
132:Language
65:Starring
1005:Awards
934:Vulture
736:1212562
483:Daniels
383:persona
300:Tarheel
187:Georgia
135:English
109: (
1440:(2024)
1432:(2023)
1424:(2022)
1418:(2021)
1410:(2020)
1402:(2019)
1394:(2018)
1386:(2017)
1378:(2016)
1375:Weiner
1370:(2015)
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436:Legacy
1192:Crumb
1024:1987
980:Clips
891:5 Oct
732:JSTOR
710:(4).
460:Slant
308:In a
232:Nagra
1383:Dina
1281:Dig!
975:IMDb
942:2022
893:2009
724:ISSN
672:ISBN
630:ISSN
351:saw
246:and
990:on
973:at
716:doi
481:by
466:sic
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