Sherman's March Trailer

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, "training his lens with phallic resolve on every accessible woman he meets."

MALE NARRATOR:
Sherman's campaign marked the first time

in modern history that total warfare
had been waged on a primarily civilization population.

And traces of the scars he left
in the South can still be found.

McElwee:
Great. Do you want to do it once more?

MALE NARRATOR:
Do it over, yeah. [clears throat]

McElwee:
Two years ago I was about to begin shooting

a documentary film on the lingering effects
of Sherman's march on the South.

I'm from the South and all through my childhood
I heard stories about how Sherman

had devastated the South.

My aunt even keeps a sofa in her attic,
which is punctured by sword holes put there

by Sherman's soldiers as they searched
for hidden valuables.

She said she'll never allow
the holes to be sewn up.

Anyway I just got a grant to make my film
and I stopped off in New York

from Boston where I live to stay for a few days
with the woman I had been seeing.

But when I arrived she told me she'd just decided
to go back to her former boyfriend.

We argued and then I left and went
to stay alone in a friend's studio loft

which happened to be vacant at the time.

Finally I headed South to see my family
and to try to begin my film.

[traffic sounds]

[car horn honks]

[traffic sounds]

McElwee:
Hi, Sis.

SIS:
Hi.

McElwee:
Where's dad? Oh, he's way back there.

McElwee: [narrating]
For a long time the consensus
among my family members

is what I really need to do is find
what they call 'a nice southern girl'

and things will be fine.

They're on vacation in the mountains
of North Carolina and they've invited me

to go along with them to a picnic and festival.

They've also invited a number of family friends
and their sons and daughters.

Mostly it seems daughters.