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Ross McElwee

As a Guest

3 segments
15:48

Filmmaker McElwee Documents Family Tobacco Ties

Ross McElwee has made a career out of filming his life. He's made seven feature-length documentaries, including Sherman's March, Time Indefinite, Something to Do with the Wall and Six O'Clock News. His latest film is Bright Leaves about his family's connection to the tobacco industry. His great-grandfather created the brand of tobacco known as Bull Durham. McElwee is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.

Interview
16:58

Filmmaker Ross McElwee on Marriage, Birth, and Death

McElwee's new documentary is "Time Indefinite", an autobiographical film about his family. McElwee's earlier movie, "Sherman's March" started out as a documentary about Civil War General William Sherman's march to the sea and ended up a examination of personal identity and the mysteries of love.

Interview
11:23

A Filmmaking Couple on the Fall of the Wall and Falling in Love

Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee and editor Marilyn Levine. He made the film, "Sherman's March," in which he set out to trace William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea -- but it really traces his entanglements with Southern women along the way. During the editing of that film, he and Levine fell in love. McElwee's new film, "Something to Do With The Wall," began as a story about the eternal presence of the Berlin Wall, but ended up a story of the wall's breaking down.

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