Hallowed Ground (2015)

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: site of the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, carnivalesque tourist mecca, sacred American Shrine. 'Hallowed Ground' is the first documentary to explore this mythic locale, one that, more than any other place, embodies the contentious and amusing ways Americans celebrate, market, and argue about their past. It follows an indelible cast of characters--from a 21st-century Confederate family to a dead-ringer for Abraham Lincoln to the embattled son of a great modernist architect--caught up in Gettysburg's magnetic pull. In their stories, a whimsical and at time bittersweet portrait of modern-day Gettysburg (and the unfinished Civil War) emerges, an affectionate postcard of a town that continues to stir up passion, conflict, and fighting spirits.