Ross McElwee is an American documentary filmmaker known for his autobiographical films about his family and personal life, usually interwoven with an episodic journey that intersects with larger political or philosophical issues.
McElwee later attended Brown University, where he studied under novelist John Hawkes,[3] and graduated in 1971 with a degree in creative writing.
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.
"[5] 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.
[9] 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.
[12] His 2011 film, Photographic Memory, breaks new ground in its fully digital process and in its open development and production structure.
Sherman's March was chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000 as an "historically significant American motion picture".