Ross McElwee documentaries screen at Film Society
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Four acclaimed documentaries by award-winning American filmmaker Ross McElwee screen at Film Societies around the country in August and September.
"In 1975, as a graduate student at MIT's Film Section, I began filming "chapters" from my own life and the lives of people close to me. Those chapters coalesced into two films, "Charleen," about my wise and flamboyant high school teacher, and "Backyard," about my relationship to my surgeon father and my medical school-bound brother. Four acclaimed documentaries by award-winning American filmmaker Ross McElwee screen at Film Societies around the country in August and September.
"In 1975, as a graduate student at MIT's Film Section, I began filming "chapters" from my own life and the lives of people close to me. Those chapters coalesced into two films, "Charleen," about my wise and flamboyant high school teacher, and "Backyard," about my relationship to my surgeon father and my medical school-bound brother."Backyard" reveals my father's pride in my brother's choice of careers, as well as his somewhat puzzled concern about my choice -- making documentary "home movies." He would say to me "Why don't you try to make nature films?"
Instead, I went on to make "Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation," an absurd title, but one which aptly summed up the major themes of the film. In it, I retraced General Sherman's destructive Civil War route, interweaving this journey with portraits of seven southern women I met along the way.
"Sherman's March " achieved wide acclaim, and led to a sequel, "Time Indefinite," in which I document my somewhat awkward shift into adulthood, getting married (finally), and then having to confront the sudden death of my father. At the end of the film, I become a father myself." -- Ross McElwee
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Director/Producer/Cinematography/Editor: Ross McElwee
Production Co: McElwee Productions
155 mins, 16mm
M offensive language
Queenstown Film Society
Tuesday August 5th, 8.30pm
Auckland Film Society
Monday August 18th, 6.00pm
Wellington Film Society
Monday August 25th, 6.15pm
Hamilton Film Society
Tuesday September 2nd, 8.00pm
Waitati Film Society
Tuesday September 9th, 8.00pm
Dunedin Film Society
Thursday September 11th, 7.30pm
Palmerston North Film Society
Wednesday September 17th, 5.30pm
Canterbury Film Society
Monday September 22nd, 6.30pm
Image: Sherman's March, directed by Ross McElwee, USA, 1986
05/08/08