Ross McElwee
Encyclopedia
Ross McElwee is an American
documentary film
maker and cinematographer, and Harvard
professor, known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey of some sort. Many cultural aspects of his southern upbringing are present in his humorous and often self-deprecating films. Other themes include personal relationships, parody, failure, introspection, and historic parallelism. He is largely credited with having mainstreamed the cinéma vérité
movement. He received the Career Award at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
.
McElwee is a 1971 graduate of Brown University
, and received his MS from MIT in 1977.
, North Carolina
, in a traditional Southern bourgeois family. His father was a well- respected surgeon, and appears often as a character in McElwee's early films. From an early age he nurtured an interest in writing. He later attended Brown University
and graduated in 1971 with a degree in creative writing
.
A turning point in McElwee's life occurred when he undertook a self-discovery voyage to Brittany
, France
and began practicing photography
. Soon after, he enrolled as a student at MIT
's filmmaking program. He studied under documentarians Richard Leacock
and Ed Pincus
, both pioneers of the cinéma vérité
movement, with whom he refined his first person narrative approach. "It was a new way of making films, to eliminate the film crew. You lose some technical polish, but it's much more intimate and less intimidating to your subjects. It allows you to shoot with the autonomy and flexibility of a photojournalist."
, in Namibia
. McElwee started filming and producing his own documentaries in 1976.
Ross McElwee has been teaching filmmaking at Harvard University since 1986 where he is a professor in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.
, Six O'Clock News
, and Bright Leaves. Sherman's March won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival
. It was cited by the National Board of Film Critics as one of the five best films of 1986. Time Indefinite won best film award in several festivals and was distributed theatrically throughout the U.S. His latest film, Photographic Memory
, was completed in 2011.
McElwee's films have been included in the festivals of Berlin, London, Vienna, Rotterdam, Florence, Sydney, and Cannes. Retrospectives include the Museum of Modern Art
; the Art Institute of Chicago
; and the American Museum of the Moving Image
, New York; McElwee has received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation
, the Rockefeller Foundation
, and the American Film Institute
. He has twice been awarded fellowships in filmmaking by the National Endowment for the Arts
. Sherman's March was also chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress
National Film Registry
in 2000 as an "historically significant American motion picture."
McElwee's film Bright Leaves premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival
's Directors' Fortnight, and was nominated for Best Documentary of 2004 by both the Director's Guild of America and the Writer's Guild of America. In 2005, complete retrospectives of McElwee's films were presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the International Festival of Documentary Cinema in Lisbon. Photographic Memory
, in competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival
, will have broken new ground in McElwee's contributions to Cinéma Vérité, not only in its fully digital process, but in its open development and production structure.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker and cinematographer, and Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
professor, known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey of some sort. Many cultural aspects of his southern upbringing are present in his humorous and often self-deprecating films. Other themes include personal relationships, parody, failure, introspection, and historic parallelism. He is largely credited with having mainstreamed the cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
movement. He received the Career Award at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, North Carolina for a four-day, morning to midnight...
.
McElwee is a 1971 graduate of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, and received his MS from MIT in 1977.
Early Life and Education
Ross McElwee grew up in CharlotteCHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, in a traditional Southern bourgeois family. His father was a well- respected surgeon, and appears often as a character in McElwee's early films. From an early age he nurtured an interest in writing. He later attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and graduated in 1971 with a degree in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
.
A turning point in McElwee's life occurred when he undertook a self-discovery voyage to Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and began practicing photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
. Soon after, he enrolled as a student at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
's filmmaking program. He studied under documentarians Richard Leacock
Richard Leacock
Richard Leacock was a British-born documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité.-Early life and career:...
and Ed Pincus
Ed Pincus
Ed Pincus began filmmaking in 1964, developing a direct cinema approach to social and political problems. He has producer-director-DP credits on eight of his films and has been cinematographer on more than a dozen additional films.-Films:...
, both pioneers of the cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
movement, with whom he refined his first person narrative approach. "It was a new way of making films, to eliminate the film crew. You lose some technical polish, but it's much more intimate and less intimidating to your subjects. It allows you to shoot with the autonomy and flexibility of a photojournalist."
Career
McElwee's career began in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina where he was a studio cameraman for local evening news, housewife helper shows, and "gospel hour" programs. Later, he freelanced, shooting films for documentarians D.A. Pennebaker followed by John MarshallJohn Marshall (filmmaker)
John Marshall was an American anthropologist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker best known for his work in Namibia recording the lives of the Ju/'hoansi tribe...
, in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. McElwee started filming and producing his own documentaries in 1976.
Ross McElwee has been teaching filmmaking at Harvard University since 1986 where he is a professor in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.
Recognition as a Filmmaker
Ross McElwee has made eight feature-length documentaries as well as several shorter films. Most of his films were shot in his homeland of the American South, among them the critically acclaimed Sherman's March, Time IndefiniteTime Indefinite
Time Indefinite is an autobiographical 1993 documentary film directed by Ross McElwee and exploring themes of grief, mortality, and the convenient disconnection of watching life through a camera lens....
, Six O'Clock News
Six O'Clock News
Six O'Clock News is a 1996 documentary film by Ross McElwee about television news in the United States, the randomness of fate, the anxiety of parenting, and the difference between representation and reality.-External links:*...
, and Bright Leaves. Sherman's March won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. It was cited by the National Board of Film Critics as one of the five best films of 1986. Time Indefinite won best film award in several festivals and was distributed theatrically throughout the U.S. His latest film, Photographic Memory
Photographic Memory (film)
Photographic Memory is a 2011 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about a voyage back to the roots of his involvement with the camera.Photographic Memory premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.-Synopsis:...
, was completed in 2011.
McElwee's films have been included in the festivals of Berlin, London, Vienna, Rotterdam, Florence, Sydney, and Cannes. Retrospectives include the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
; the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
; and the American Museum of the Moving Image
American Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in Astoria, Queens on the former site of the Kaufman Astoria Studios. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the American Museum of the Moving Image. The museum began a $67 million expansion in March 2008 and reopened in January 2011...
, New York; McElwee has received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation
Guggenheim Foundation
Guggenheim Foundation may refer to one of the following:*The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation funds the Guggenheim Museums.*The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards grants to scientists, scholars and artists....
, the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, and the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
. He has twice been awarded fellowships in filmmaking by the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. Sherman's March was also chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
in 2000 as an "historically significant American motion picture."
McElwee's film Bright Leaves premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
's Directors' Fortnight, and was nominated for Best Documentary of 2004 by both the Director's Guild of America and the Writer's Guild of America. In 2005, complete retrospectives of McElwee's films were presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the International Festival of Documentary Cinema in Lisbon. Photographic Memory
Photographic Memory (film)
Photographic Memory is a 2011 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about a voyage back to the roots of his involvement with the camera.Photographic Memory premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.-Synopsis:...
, in competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, will have broken new ground in McElwee's contributions to Cinéma Vérité, not only in its fully digital process, but in its open development and production structure.
Filmography
Director- Space Coast (1979)
- CharleenCharleenCharleen is an observational documentary film directed and shot by Ross McElwee, about his friend and former poetry teacher, Charleen Swansea...
(1980) - Resident Exile (1981)
- Backyard (1984)
- Sherman's March (1986)
- Something to Do with the Wall (1990)
- Time IndefiniteTime IndefiniteTime Indefinite is an autobiographical 1993 documentary film directed by Ross McElwee and exploring themes of grief, mortality, and the convenient disconnection of watching life through a camera lens....
(1993) - Six O'Clock NewsSix O'Clock NewsSix O'Clock News is a 1996 documentary film by Ross McElwee about television news in the United States, the randomness of fate, the anxiety of parenting, and the difference between representation and reality.-External links:*...
(1997) - Bright LeavesBright Leaves (film)Bright Leaves is a 2003 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about the association his family had with the tobacco industry....
(2003) - In Paraguay (2008)
- Photographic MemoryPhotographic Memory (film)Photographic Memory is a 2011 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about a voyage back to the roots of his involvement with the camera.Photographic Memory premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.-Synopsis:...
(2011)
External links
- Ross McElwee's web site http://www.stquayfilms.comRoss McElwee's production}
- Online conference with Ross McElwee at The D-WordThe D-WordThe D-Word is a worldwide online community for professionals in the documentary film industry. Discussions include creative, business, technical, and social topics related to documentary filmmaking....