Cinema / Film

Sherman's March

ICA

The Mall, London · and other venues

Today · 18:00 · £5

Ross McElwee · 158m · Film

About this event

Armed with a 16mm camera and a grant to make a documentary about the lingering aftermath of William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 march to the sea, Ross McElwee gets sidetracked. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, Ross shifts his attention from the historical to the personal, to the battlefield of modern love, and embarks on a sociological chronicle that documents the courting rites and rituals of the New South. A generous and humanistic portrait of several remarkable women that Ross meets along the way, Sherman’s March sketches its characters with novelistic sensitivity: Pat, an aspiring actress with a yen for Burt Reynolds; Claudia, a roller-skating interior designer; Jackie, the activist whose anti-nuclear advocacy dovetails with Ross’s deepest fears; and above all, Charleen Swansea, Ross’s mentor and a one-woman Greek chorus of unsolicited romantic counsel. A landmark of first-person filmmaking that presaged everything from Michael Moore to reality TV. “The Mark Twain of documentarians... McElwee’s wit is surpassed only by his uncanny knack for observation.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine “Though McElwee’s timing with women is awful, he’s a filmmaker-anthropologist with a rare appreciation for the eccentric details of our edgy civilization. SHERMAN’S MARCH, which was made in 1981, is a timely memoir of the 80’s." Vincent Canby, The New York Times This autumn, Cube celebrates the work of pioneering filmmaker Ross McElwee with two films spanning nearly four decades. We’re delighted to present a new 4K restoration of his landmark 1986 documentary Sherman’s March, alongside his latest feature, Remake. Together, these deeply personal films chart a singular filmmaking journey, exploring love, memory, family and the passage of time through McElwee’s uniquely intimate lens.