Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation is a 1986 documentary film written and directed by Ross McElwee. It was awarded the Grand Jury prize at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival. and in 2000, was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry. Background McElwee initially planned to make a film about the effects of General William Tecumseh Sherman's Civil War march through Georgia and the Carolinas, the Georgia portion of which is commonly called the "March to the Sea". A traumatic breakup McElwee experienced before filming made it difficult for him to separate personal from professional concerns, shifting the focus of the film to create a more personal story about the women in his life, love, romance and religion. Other themes include the spectre of nuclear holocaust in the context of the Cold War and the legacy and complexity of General Sherman's own life. The film follows a repetitive narrative pattern. McElwee becomes enamored with various women, eventually developing feelings for each of his subjects, only to have his romantic hopes dashed. McElwee has said it follows a personal essay form; a hybrid autobiographical interactive documentary form that exists between fiction and nonfiction. Production McElwee said his previous film "Backyard was a sketch for Sherman's March, an experiment in how I could approach the bigger film". He said Backyard is also "cruder" because "I was just learning to shoot as a one-person crew. I was just getting over that odd sense of camera shyness in reverse. It takes a while to summon the gumption to shoot people you know well, to be able to face them and talk to them as you're filming. Also, I was using a Nagra 4, a very large tape recorder: it weighs 20 pounds and I carried it slung over my shoulder. For Sherman's March, I used a miniature Nagra SN, a very highly developed piece of recording equipment that could fit on my belt. This technological improvement made shooting much easier. Initially, McElwee thought the film would be a "synthesis of Backyard and Space Coast," but the day after filming the Scottish games, his sister "said—somewhat seriously, somewhat joking—'You should use the camera as a way to meet women.' She's sincerely upset about my having ended my relationship with my girlfriend, and she's looking for ways to get me