'You should use the camera as a way to meet women….”
Ross McElwee
Por lo menos una ves cada década este increíble cineasta desgarra su alma plasmando el dolor y la vida en pantalla.
Al principio de este documental el director plantea que la idea original, era capturar los efectos secundarios que trajo la guerra civil , en los territorios de Georgias, Carolina del Norte y del Sur, basándose en la vida del General William Tecumseh Sherman, de quien McElwee siempre fue admirador oficial.
En el transcurso de la marcha hacia el sur de Boston del propio McElwee algo devastador ocurrió, su novia lo dejo, experiencia traumática para el y sentimiento que recalca varias veces a través del soundtrack de la película. A pesar de creer que ya no podría seguir, recordó que aun tenia su cámara y 9000 dls para financiar su película.
Visitando lugares como Atlanta y Savannah, el director hace el recorrido de Sherman, en algunas ocasiones hace paradas en campos de batalla de la Guerra Civil por algunos minutos tomándose el tiempo necesario para poder observar. Poco después revela al espectador el verdadero objetivo del documental que es generar una profunda meditación sobre la posibilidad de enamorarse en el territorio Sur, en estos días, o mas bien la posibilidad de que exista un amor romántico en una época de supermercados , comida rápida, armas nucleares , cámaras portátiles, equipo de iluminación que termina por permitir a quien sea crear record filmado de su propia vida.
Me encanta la forma en la que el documental va abriendo puertas y posibilidades. Uno como autor no tiene porque vender la trama verdadera de su obra desde un principio. ¿Por que es que la mayoría de los artistas, creen que deben ser completamente sinceros cuando se trata de hablar de los contenidos de sus piezas, porque no podemos llegar y dejar que el espectador explore, sin haber dado ninguna base previa que pueda alterar su juicio? Esa es la forma en la que trabaja McElwee y donde pienso que su triunfo es mayor. Un recorrido debe de ser inesperado, nunca sabes que vendra después. Esa sensación se desarrollo en mi mente en varias ocasiones mientras veía Sherman´s March.
Entrevista a Ross McElwee, opinión del director
I had no firm idea as to how to begin shooting Sherman's March. That is, I only knew that I wanted to make some sort of film about my homeland, the South, and I was interested in the degree to which the South was still haunted by the Civil War - Sherman's campaign in particular - but I never intended for it to be an historical documentary. I thought perhaps my shooting would yield more than one film, and I assumed that racial relations in the so-called "New South" would be a major theme - perhaps the major theme of the film. But other themes became more dominant, though the notion of how blacks and whites coexist in the South is still imbedded in much of the footage. I thought I would probably narrate it with first-person voice-over, as I had done in Backyard, but I wasn't enthusiastic about stepping in front of the camera to perform monologues. I was more comfortable behind the camera. But as I finished my first month of shooting in North Carolina and realized that this film was going to be more directly autobiographical than I had anticipated, I began filming monologues. I thought it would be best at least to get them on film. I could decide whether to use them later.
I was on the road for about four months, and shot, or was ready to shoot, nearly every day. I was open to filming anything that came along. Serendipity was paramount. The only requirement I forced on myself was that I somehow stick to the path Sherman's army made as it swung through Georgia and the Carolinas. I shot perhaps twenty-five hours of film. I did not have a very big budget and had to marshal my film stock carefully. I sometimes wonder how much more footage I would have shot if I had been shooting video, but video was not really viable for field-shooting back in the early 1980s when I shot Sherman's.
''What was the balance between how much you shot and didn't shoot when you were with people?''
'I was almost always ready to shoot. I kept the camera within reaching distance, sometimes balanced on my shoulder. Maybe Sherman's March took five months of shooting. I never figured it out exactly. But even between major portraits, when I was on the road, I was totally open to filming whatever might happen in a gas station or in a restaurant, or wherever. So in one sense you can count all that time at "filming time."
I'd guess the total amount of footage I actually shot was about 25 hours. I don't remember exactly. In the finished film I ended up with 2 1/2 hours of that--a 10 or 11 to 1 filming ratio. But that other ratio, between five months and 2 1/2 hours--that's astronomical.
I spent five or six days with Charleen [Swansea]. That was probably the shortest period overall that I spent with anybody. She's so intense; things happen so quickly with her, that I didn't need to be there long. Of course, there were also times when I'd go with her prepared to film, and film nothing because it wasn't interesting enough. I'd just relax and enjoy myself if I could.
I'd never presume to make a pronouncement concerning what I think relationships between men and women are all about. I think it's abundantly clear, from Sherman's March, that I myself, haven't a clue--at least at that point in my life. I guess the one lesson I might have garnered from the experience of making Sherman's March was that true love, whatever that is, was unlikely to present itself as long as I was determined to track it down with a camera, and the audience knows this. But the humor of this knowledge, this audience one-upmanship, is one of the reasons why the film works--at least for most people who see it. In general, I'd have to agree with the philosophy stated in innumerable Broadway songs that love is likely to strike when you least expect it. That was certainly the case with me and Marilyn, my wife. And from then on, it's a matter of redefining what love means as you stay with someone.'
mediaartists.org/content.
www.wickypedia.com
http://rossmcelwee.com/films.html
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/news/ross
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