Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary!
by Alex Billington
June 19, 2026
Source: YouTube
“A Meditation on Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation…” Music Box Films has revealed an official trailer for the documentary film titled Sherman’s March, a seminal doc creation that set the tone for first-person filmmaking for decades to come. Sherman’s March is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, with its original 1986 festival premiere as the date they’re going with. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 1987 and went on to earn a cult following as one of the very first docs where the filmmaker becomes the subject of the doc itself. Director Ross McElwee has a brand new film releasing this year called Remake, a look back at what has happened in his life over the last 40 years. (I’ve seen both are both films are must watch docs.) To help promote the release of that doc, they’re re-releasing Sherman’s March as a nice, pristine, cleaned up 4K version and it looks better than ever. In the film, the filmmaker Ross McElwee originally sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman’s March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life. We follow along as he meets various women and he attempts to woo them, often unsuccessfully in hilarious ways. An astonishing slice of life look at humans and all of their quirks. So glad it’ll be out there again to watch soon.
Here’s the new 40th Anniversary trailer for Ross McElwee’s doc Sherman’s March, direct from YouTube:
Armed with a 16mm camera and a grant to make a documentary about the lingering aftermath of William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 march to the sea, Ross McElwee gets sidetracked. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, Ross shifts his attention from the historical to the personal, to the battlefield of modern love, and embarks on a sociological chronicle that documents the various courting rites & rituals of the New South. A generous, humanistic portrait of several remarkable women that Ross meets along the way, Sherman’s March sketches its characters with novelistic sensitivity: Pat, an aspiring actress with a yearn for Burt Reynolds; Claudia, a roller-skating interior designer; Jackie, the activist whose anti-nuclear advocacy dovetails with Ross’s deepest fears; and above all, Charleen Swansea, Ross’s mentor & one-woman Greek chorus of unsolicited romantic counsel. A landmark of first-person filmmaking that presaged everything from Michael Moore to reality TV, Sherman’s March will soon be available in a brand new 4K restoration.
Sherman’s March is entirely written & directed & produced by the award-winning, acclaimed American doc filmmaker Ross McElwee, his second feature after the doc Charleen (1977) and before going on to make Something to Do with the Wall (1991) and many other doc films after. The film initially premiered at the 1986 USA Film Festival (after a smaller debut in late 1985) then later on at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Music Box Films releases McElwee’s Sherman’s March 4K restoration in select US theaters starting July 3rd, 2026. For more info visit the official site. Who has seen this already?
