SHERMAN’S MARCH / PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

ABOUT THE FILMS:

SHERMAN’S MARCH, 1985, Dir. Ross McElwee, 155 Mins, LittleField Films, USA

After his girlfriend leaves him, McElwee takes a voyage along the original route followed by General William Sherman – but rather than cutting a swath of destruction designed to force the Confederate South into submission, as Sherman did, McElwee searches for love, camera in hand.

FORMAT: DCP

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY, 2011, Dir. Ross McElwee, 87 Mins, LittleField Films, USA/France

In English and French with English subtitles.

The filmmaker finds himself in frequent conflict with his son, who is no longer the delightful child the father loved, but an argumentative young adult who inhabits virtual worlds available through the internet. To the father, the son seems to be addicted to and permanently distracted by those worlds. The filmmaker undertakes a journey to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany where he worked for a spring as a wedding photographer’s assistant at age 24 –slightly older than his son is now. He has not been back to St. Quay since that visit, and hopes to gain some perspective on what his own life was like when he was his son’s age. He also hopes to track down his former employer, a fascinating Frenchman named Maurice, and Maud, a woman with whom he was romantically involved during that spring 38 years ago. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY is a meditation on the passing of time, the praxis of photography and film, digital versus analog, and the fractured love of a father for his son.

FORMAT: DCP