Backyard

With the screening of Backyard, Sherman’s March and Time Indefinite (see elsewhere in this catalogue) the Rotterdam Film Festival presents a true home-movie trilogy by a film-maker who has taken the style of the personal documentary to great heights.In Backyard (from 1984, with material as far back as 1977) the film-maker returns after studying in the North-East (Boston) to his roots in the South (North Carolina). McElwee has a difficult relationship with his conservative father, a surgeon. He wasnever able to talk to his father about his mother’s death from cancer. Now he returns home, armed with his camera, intento on getting to know and understand his background better and look his father straight in the eye. He doesn’t yet succeed in Backyard.Sherman’s March is a lighthearted and witty sequel to Backyard – although the film can easily be seen on its own. McElwee received money to make a documentary about the notorious forays through Georgia and North Carolina by the Confederate General Sherman, during the American Civil War. Just as McElwee wants to start shooting, his girlfriend leaves him. Overwhelmed by grief, he seeks solace with his family. The actual reason for the documentary fades into the background and the film-maker becomes the subject of his own film when he, in the company of his camera, gets flirtatious and goes out on the town.