True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly
True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly
True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly
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By Ross McElwee<br />
1986, 155 min.<br />
Available from Amazon<br />
Rent from Netflix<br />
Sherman’s March<br />
This film is not about the civil war, nor Sherman’s March. It began with those ideas, but the filmmaker<br />
quickly diverts his grant money to film his own autobiographical march through the south<br />
where he grew up. As he visits old girlfriends and finds new ones, his camera is running. He<br />
films himself painfully asking women why they won’t marry him, or in private to himself, why he<br />
won’t commit. This extremely internal journey sounds like a recipe for cinematic disaster and by<br />
every expectation this film should be a boring wreck. But it isn’t. The film is saved by the women<br />
he meets. Each southern belle he records is more fascinating than the last, each looming larger,<br />
each unforgettable in an almost Dickensian way. While the filmmaker hides his anxieties behind<br />
his camera, a strange beauty erupts out of the intensity and passion of his girl friends. There are<br />
more interesting strong women in this film than any film I’ve seen. Nothing else visibly happens<br />
in the film. If you stare hard enough at normal life it begins to wiggle, and in this film an introspective<br />
guy keeps staring until the ordinary become astounding. The film is sweet and funny<br />
and oddly endearing.<br />
Nothing happens as the filmmaker’s former girlfriend<br />
floats in her pool. Another old girlfriend<br />
rollerblades circles around him.<br />
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