Charleston means a lot to me in a visceral way, and it continues to play an important role in my films and in my imagination. The first time I visited was in the late 1980s when I was working on my Civil War series. As soon as I got there, I saw the beauty of it with its trees and sea islands and architecture. Charleston locals have such pride about their city; I remember they used to joke that the Cooper and Ashley rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean. There’s also a complexity to it. The Civil War started there on April 12, 1861, when Confederate gunners bombarded Fort Sumter. The only casualty was a horse, so it was a bloodless beginning to the bloodiest war in America. Over the years, I went out to that spot many times with my little girls, who are now grown and have kids of their

See Full Page