Sherman's March

Ross McElwee set out to make a documentary following the route General Sherman burned through the South at the end of the Civil War. Just before leaving, he broke up with his girlfriend. With the camera running, instead of following Sherman he began filming his own life: the women he met, his family, his friends, and his own indecision. The documentary gradually became the record of the director's attempt to start a new relationship. The full title says as much: Sherman's March, A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation. The narrative holds the two themes side by side and never explains the link between them. McElwee holds the camera himself and films while saying he is recording; the people opposite him speak knowing it. The film won the grand jury prize at Sundance in 1987 and entered the National Film Registry in 2000. Who it's for: Viewers who like personal documentary, first-person narration, and American independent cinema. Who it's not for: It runs two and a half hours and the director's attention to himself will oppress some viewers. The structure is also deliberately loose.