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At one point in his first feature-length film, SHERMAN'S MARCH, Ross McElwee's friend Charleen asks him to put down the camera, saying, "this is life, not art." Nevertheless, McElwee doesn't put the camera down. Not right away. The difference between life and art can be somewhat slight for documentary filmmaker McElwee. Before being named Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, SHERMAN'S MARCH had been an idea about the lingering effects of General Tecumseh Sherman's pillaging of the South. But right before he started filming, McElwee broke up with his girlfriend, and the film turned into a documentary about his entry back onto the dating scene. Sort of. From SHERMAN'S MARCH to his latest project about his great-grandfather's tobacco legacy, McElwee's work exists somewhere between an autobiography and, well, something else.
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