"Whether he really set off in search of General Sherman, or a Southern girlfriend, we’ll never know. But one thing is for sure: this film would never have got commissioned if he’d pitched it. And it would never have been so wonderful if he’d followed a deadline, rather than his intuition. A rare delight, a true slice of life, an inspiration to many, and funny as f***. It’s not why I got into films, but reminds me of why it’s worth persevering."
– Sean Langan
Originally intended, and funded, as a documentary about General Tecumseh Sherman’s devastating march through Georgia and the Carolinas in the last year of the American Civil War, Sherman’s March the film’s focus shifts as a result of the filmmaker’s break up with his girlfriend.
Unable to forget his personal concerns, McElwee decides to continue to follow the course of the Sherman’s march but is frequently sidetracked by women and hopes of love and romance, which are frequently disappointed.
Combining portraits of local characters and old girlfriends, the film shows McElwee’s painful, hilarious, and epic journey while examining the legacy and complexity of General Sherman’s own life, the film also gives fascinating insight into corporate greed, religious zeal, and impending nuclear doom in America in the ’80s.
1986
Directed by Ross McElwee
157 mins
Recommends is a new screening strand in which friends of Frontline select one of their favourite documentaries.
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What do we really think of democracy? We’re all supposed to be citizens – but what does it mean to be a citizen? Please Vote For Me answers these questions briskly and hilariously, through the medium of an election staged in a Chinese classroom in which 9 year olds strive to turn themselves into politicians to get elected to the post of Class Monitor. – Nick Fraser
Please Vote for Me is director Weijun Chen’s experiment in introducing democracy to the ordinary Chinese citizen. In Wuhan, a city in central China about the size of London, a group of Grade 3 children are running for the newly created position of Class Monitor. Urged by parents and teachers alike, the candidates in the school become increasingly competitive as the election wears on.
Through this class election Weijun Chen explores whether democratic elections outside the Communist Party would be possible in China. Please Vote for Me is a thoughtful exploraton of how democracy works and whether it is a value inherent in human nature.
2007
Directed by Weijun Chen
58 mins
Recommends is a new screening strand in which friends of Frontline are asked to select one of their favourite documentaries.
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Fourteen Days in May charts the last two weeks of Edward Johnson’s life. I hate to think how my inexperience may have cost him his life. He was patently innocent, but the courts were just not interested at the time. Perhaps the film goes a very small way towards vindicating him and ensuring that something positive came out of the nightmare of his death. – Clive Stafford Smith
Fourteen Days in May is the seminal documentary about Edward Earl Johnson, an African American man convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to the death penalty in Mississippi. Despite continually protesting his innocence and claiming that his confession to the crimes was obtained under physical duress, Johnson continued his journey down death row to his own execution.
Fourteen Days in May gives unprecedented access to the prison system in which the death penalty still operates. From prison wardens to Johnson to the executioners themselves, Fourteen Days in May includes the voice of capital punishment in America. This scope and Johnson’s death have served to establish Fourteen Days in May as one of the most venerated documentaries about the death penalty.
1988
Directed by Paul Hamann
87 mins
Recommends is a new screening strand in which friends of Frontline select one of their favourite documentaries.
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