Sherman's March

, director Ross McElwee's first feature-length documentary, ostensibly focuses on the modern day impact of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous March to the Sea on Southerners.

While at MIT working on a master's degree in filmmaking, McElwee studied under documentarians Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus, both pioneers of the cinéma vérité movement, and refined his first person narrative approach. In the film, General Sherman's story intersects McElwee's own self-deprecating tale of life, love, and religion. It straddles fiction and nonfiction, comedy and drama, primarily through a series of impromptu interviews.

Sherman's March won the Grand Jury prize in the field of documentary at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival, and was added to the National Film Registry in 2000.