Ross McElwee

Ross McElwee grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a traditional Southern family.[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-11-19-9711190223-story.html FILMMAKER ROSS MCELWEE EXPLORES A HIGHER POWER: TELEVISION-Chicago Tribune]

His father was a surgeon and appears often as a figure in McElwee's early films. McElwee later attended Brown University, where he studied under novelist John Hawkes,[http://www.play-doc.com/web2012/rossE.html Play-Doc 2012-ROSS MCELWE-Special Program-International Documentary Festival] and graduated in 1971 with a degree in creative writing. While at Brown, he also cross-registered in still photography courses at Rhode Island School of Design.[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-11-19-9711190223-story.html FILMMAKER ROSS MCELWEE EXPLORES A HIGHER POWER: TELEVISION-Chicago Tribune]

After graduating, McElwee lived for a year in Brittany, France, where he worked for a while as a wedding photographer's assistant. Upon returning to the US, he was admitted into MIT's new graduate filmmaking program and graduated in 1977 with an M.S. While at MIT, 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."Ken Gewertz. [http://www.hevcmovie.com/p/harvard-gazette-archives.html "The world according to McElwee: A documentary filmmaker's unique personal vision"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404200824/http://www.hevcmovie.com/p/harvard-gazette-archives.html |date=2018-04-04 }} by Ken Gewertz, Harvard News Office, Harvard Gazette, 21 Apr 2005.

McElwee's film career began in his hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina, where he found summer employment as a studio cameraman for local evening news, housewife helper shows, and "gospel hour" programs.[http://rossmcelwee.com/biography.html Ross McElwee-Biography] Later, he freelanced as second cameraman for documentarians D.A. Pennebaker, and later for John Marshall in Namibia. McElwee started filming and producing his own documentaries in 1976.[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

McElwee began teaching filmmaking at Harvard University in 1986; {{as of|2022|July|lc=y}} he was a professor of the practice of filmmaking in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.{{Cite web|title=Ross McElwee|url=https://afvs.fas.harvard.edu/people/ross-mcelwee|access-date=2022-07-30|website=ves.fas.harvard.edu|language=en}}

McElwee has made ten feature-length documentaries and several shorter films.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/news/ross/filmquart.html Film Quarterly-FRONTLINE-PBS] Most of his films were shot in his homeland, the American South, among them Sherman's March (1986), Time Indefinite, Six O'Clock News, and Bright Leaves.[https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/692 MoMA] He collaborated with his wife, Marilyn Levine,[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/news/ross/mmmagdec93.html Ross McElwee Interview #1-FRONTLINE-PBS] on Something to do with the Wall.[http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2002094701/ WorldCat.org] His 2011 film, Photographic Memory, breaks new ground in its fully digital process and in its open development and production structure.{{or|date=July 2022}}

Sherman's March won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.[http://nightflight.com/ross-mcelwees-shermans-march-a-meditation-on-the-possibility-of-romantic-love-in-the-south-today/ Ross McElwee’s “Sherman’s March”: “A meditation on the possibility of romantic love in the South today”-Night Flight]

It was cited by the National Board of Film Critics as one of the five best films of 1986.[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

Time Indefinite won a best film award in several festivals and was distributed theatrically throughout the U.S. Six O'Clock News premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast nationally over PBS' Frontline.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/news/etc/bio.html Ross McElwee Biography-FRONTLINE-PBS]

McElwee's films have been included in the festivals of Cannes, Berlin, London, Venice, Vienna, Rotterdam, Florence, and Sydney.[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

Retrospectives include the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Retrospectives have also been held in Paris, Tehran, Moscow, Seoul, Lisbon, and Quito. McElwee has received fellowships and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Film Institute.[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

He has twice been awarded fellowships in filmmaking by the National Endowment for the Arts. Sherman's March was chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000 as an "historically significant American motion picture".[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

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 Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. .[http://heymancenter.org/people/ross-mcelwee/ People-Ross McElwee-The Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University]

In Paraguay premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2008.[https://www.americancinemapapers.com/files/VENICE_2008_THROUGH_A_GLASS.htm VEINCE 2008-VARDA & McELWEE-BY HARLAN KENNEDY] McElwee returned to Venice in 2011 to present the premier of Photographic Memory.{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2011/film/markets-festivals/venice-horizons-hosts-demme-franco-pix-1118040488/|title=Venice Horizons hosts Demme, Franco pix|last=Vivarelli|first=Nick|date=2011-07-27|work=Variety|access-date=2017-06-01|language=en-US}}

• Space Coast (1979) - co-director Michel Negroponte[http://sensesofcinema.com/2008/feature-articles/backyard-ross-mcelwee/ Backyard and Ross McElwee’s Observational Comedy·Senses of Cinema][https://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2012/10/seduced-and-abandoned-in-florida-fri.html Oddball Films:Seduced and Abandoned in Florida - Fri. Oct. 19 - 8PM]
• Charleen (1980)[http://sensesofcinema.com/2008/feature-articles/backyard-ross-mcelwee/ Backyard and Ross McElwee’s Observational Comedy·Senses of Cinema]
• Resident Exile (1981) - co-director Alex Anthony and Michel Negroponte
• Backyard (1984)[http://sensesofcinema.com/2008/feature-articles/backyard-ross-mcelwee/ Backyard and Ross McElwee’s Observational Comedy·Senses of Cinema]
• Sherman's March (1986)
• Something to Do with the Wall (1990) - co-director Marilyn Levine
• Time Indefinite (1993)
• Six O'Clock News (1997)[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/news/etc/bio.html Ross McElwee Biography-FRONTLINE-PBS]
• Bright Leaves (2003)
• In Paraguay (2008)
• Photographic Memory (2011)

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720150211/http://dspace.unav.es/dspace/bitstream/10171/4367/1/indice%20e%20introduccion.pdf Landscapes of the Self: The Cinema of Ross McElwee], edited by Efren Cuevas and Alberto N. García (Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias, Madrid, 2007). {{ISBN|978-84-8469-226-3}}. The book is in English and Spanish. The chapter in the book by E. Cuevas, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717113432/http://dspace.unav.es/dspace/bitstream/10171/3394/1/Cap%20Efren%20RMcElwee.pdf Sculpting the Self: Autobiography according to Ross McElwee], is available on the web.

• {{official website|http://rossmcelwee.com}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170709045142/http://www.stquayfilms.com/ Ross McElwee's production]
• [https://archive.today/20070927045320/http://newcafe.org/partners/guest/motet.cgi?show+The_D-Word+16+1- Online conference] with Ross McElwee at The D-Word
• {{IMDb name|id=0568478|name=Ross McElwee}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:Brown University alumni

Category:American documentary film directors

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Charlotte, North Carolina

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Category:Charlotte Country Day School alumni

Category:Film directors from North Carolina

Category:Sundance Film Festival award winners