Welcome to the premiere episode of Doc Talk, our new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey. We’re kicking off with a deep dive into a signature power of documentary: The capacity to right a grave wrong in the criminal justice system by freeing a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Only a handful of major nonfiction filmmakers has achieved this extraordinary feat, springing men and women who faced Death Row or life sentences.
We talk with Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), Amy Berg (The Case Against Adnan Syed and West of Memphis), and Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four).
Morris shares his theory of why Randall Dale Adams — the man who almost certainly would have been put to death by the state of Texas if not for The Thin Blue Line — turned around and sued him.
We talk with Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), Amy Berg (The Case Against Adnan Syed and West of Memphis), and Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four).
Morris shares his theory of why Randall Dale Adams — the man who almost certainly would have been put to death by the state of Texas if not for The Thin Blue Line — turned around and sued him.
- 9/12/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Errol Morris, who made his name with Texas true-crime documentary The Thin Blue Line, is heading back to the Lone Star state for his latest project.
Morris will exec produce a docuseries End of Sentence with Rebel Hearts producer Anchor Entertainment and director Zo Wesson about the case of Benjamine Spencer.
Spencer is an innocent Black man who served 34 years of a life-prison sentence for a murder he did not commit.
The project is based on Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s reporting in The Atlantic.
It comes four decades after Spencer’s conviction for the robbery and murder of the 33-year-old Dallas executive Jeffrey Young – a crime he maintains he did not perpetrate throughout his defense and subsequent appeals.
The first act of the project will open on March 12, 2021, the day the district attorney releases Spencer from prison for receiving an unfair trial that led to a conviction based on demonstrably false testimony.
Morris will exec produce a docuseries End of Sentence with Rebel Hearts producer Anchor Entertainment and director Zo Wesson about the case of Benjamine Spencer.
Spencer is an innocent Black man who served 34 years of a life-prison sentence for a murder he did not commit.
The project is based on Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s reporting in The Atlantic.
It comes four decades after Spencer’s conviction for the robbery and murder of the 33-year-old Dallas executive Jeffrey Young – a crime he maintains he did not perpetrate throughout his defense and subsequent appeals.
The first act of the project will open on March 12, 2021, the day the district attorney releases Spencer from prison for receiving an unfair trial that led to a conviction based on demonstrably false testimony.
- 10/4/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
The documentary as true-life suspense mystery came to the fore, and might have been invented, by Errol Morris, when he released “The Thin Blue Line” in 1988. It was the rare nonfiction film that had a demonstrable real-world impact. Beyond that, the movie forged a uniquely gripping experience by presenting itself as a kind of documentary film noir. You could say that Capote and Mailer, in “In Cold Blood” and “The Executioner’s Song,” got there first, but in the world of nonfiction film we hadn’t seen this sort of elevated tabloid page-turner before. This was still an age when documentaries were viewed, by too many, as medicine, and Morris’s techniques were revolutionary, as well as controversial. (His then-novel use of dramatic reenactments was thought to have contributed to the film’s failure to snag an Oscar nomination.)
You could feel the influence of “The Thin Blue Line” on a...
You could feel the influence of “The Thin Blue Line” on a...
- 3/20/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
In this week’s missile of a The New York Times story about the many alleged indiscretions of Harvey Weinstein, one of his past colleagues, former Miramax Los Angeles president Mark Gill, describes Weinstein’s professional climb from indie producer to Hollywood titan. “From the outside, it seemed golden — the Oscars, the success, the remarkable cultural impact.” Yet Gill said the persistent whispers that Weinstein was mistreating women were in fact “the biggest mess of all.”
While The Weinstein Co. co-founder publicly championed women’s rights, his accusers say that he was a hypocrite, secretly propositioning them for massages, kisses and more. One month after Weinstein distributed “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about rapes on university campuses, he allegedly groped a college-aged woman in his office. Weinstein, 65, has a well-documented, on-the-record history of unflattering behavior, even against women (like in 2002, when he publicly berated director Julie Taymor at a screening of her film,...
While The Weinstein Co. co-founder publicly championed women’s rights, his accusers say that he was a hypocrite, secretly propositioning them for massages, kisses and more. One month after Weinstein distributed “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about rapes on university campuses, he allegedly groped a college-aged woman in his office. Weinstein, 65, has a well-documented, on-the-record history of unflattering behavior, even against women (like in 2002, when he publicly berated director Julie Taymor at a screening of her film,...
- 10/7/2017
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
Catherine Pearson Feb 22, 2017
Documentary fans are well served by these 11 great documentary series and features, currently available on Netflix UK...
In recent years, even months, Netflix has upped its game. No longer just a site to instantly stream an old title you might have once picked up in Blockbuster, it's become a hub of quality new and original film and television and this is by no means limited to its vast selection of fiction.
See related The world of the Peaky Blinders
With the scope of possibility in visual effects and the boundlessness of imagination there are very few places we cannot explore in fiction nowadays… that is unless we explore stories that are stranger than fiction. There is a tangible thirst for the real; the overwhelming response to recent Netflix documentary Making A Murderer in the news and social media, as just one example, exposes the desire for and...
Documentary fans are well served by these 11 great documentary series and features, currently available on Netflix UK...
In recent years, even months, Netflix has upped its game. No longer just a site to instantly stream an old title you might have once picked up in Blockbuster, it's become a hub of quality new and original film and television and this is by no means limited to its vast selection of fiction.
See related The world of the Peaky Blinders
With the scope of possibility in visual effects and the boundlessness of imagination there are very few places we cannot explore in fiction nowadays… that is unless we explore stories that are stranger than fiction. There is a tangible thirst for the real; the overwhelming response to recent Netflix documentary Making A Murderer in the news and social media, as just one example, exposes the desire for and...
- 2/19/2017
- Den of Geek
“Making a Murderer” subject Brendan Dassey had his conviction overturned by a federal judge on Friday. But “Making a Murderer” is not the first time a film or documentary has been a factor in a major legal reversal of fortune. “Gimme Shelter” (1970) A documentary directed by the Maysles brothers, “Gimme Shelter” started out as a simple concert film about The Rolling Stones, but turned out to be essential documentation of the fights and violence that erupted at the Altamont Free Concert. “The Thin Blue Line” (1988) Errol Morris‘ documentary depicted Randall Dale Adams, a man serving life in prison for a murder.
- 8/12/2016
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
Netflix
By now, you’ve already sat through ten hours of Making a Murderer and, since turning amateur sleuth and staying up way past your bedtime, have ploughed through endless transcripts and YouTube videos to convince yourself that you will be the one to solve the case of Steven Avery.
Here’s the bad news; you won’t be.
Most of us have now realised that, however enthralling the season was, it was still a rather cunning move from Netflix. Huge accusations of bias toward Avery’s case have been thrown at the filmmakers and, with doubts of Avery’s innocence now being cast by ex-girlfriend, Jodi Stachowski and even his own son (who admitted that it’s possible that his father killed Teresa Halbach this week) the case is still as unsolved as ever.
Netflix has hinted at a season 2, but in the meantime the arm-chair detective in you...
By now, you’ve already sat through ten hours of Making a Murderer and, since turning amateur sleuth and staying up way past your bedtime, have ploughed through endless transcripts and YouTube videos to convince yourself that you will be the one to solve the case of Steven Avery.
Here’s the bad news; you won’t be.
Most of us have now realised that, however enthralling the season was, it was still a rather cunning move from Netflix. Huge accusations of bias toward Avery’s case have been thrown at the filmmakers and, with doubts of Avery’s innocence now being cast by ex-girlfriend, Jodi Stachowski and even his own son (who admitted that it’s possible that his father killed Teresa Halbach this week) the case is still as unsolved as ever.
Netflix has hinted at a season 2, but in the meantime the arm-chair detective in you...
- 2/12/2016
- by KJ Lewis
- Obsessed with Film
Anyone who considers him- or herself a true-crime fan has seen Errol Morris's seminal documentary The Thin Blue Line, which unearths the truth about the 1976 murder of Officer Robert Wood and the subsequent conviction of Randall Adams for the crime. Adams's sentence was ultimately overturned, due in part to Morris's investigative work in the film. In an excellent interview with Slate, Morris discusses why we're experiencing such a collective infatuation with the true-crime genre:However you want to describe it: the whodunit; the mystery of what really happened; the mystery of personality; of who people really, really are is powerfully represented when you have a crime standing in back of all of it. It’s a way of dramatizing really significant issues: How we know what we know? How have we come to the belief that we have? Is justice served by the various mechanisms in our society? Is the...
- 1/27/2016
- by Halle Kiefer
- Vulture
It's January, and if your new year's resolution was to watch better movies, then good news: We've got you covered (The bad news: You have terribly low ambitions). From comfort-food classics to a new Netflix documentary series that finds a comedian completely reinventing herself (and does not involve murder cases), there's a hot, hungover mess of great new things to stream this month. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our guide to the best of what's new to view during the first month of 2016. Because you don't have to get...
- 1/6/2016
- Rollingstone.com
This week sees the release of wonderful new Criterion editions of three of the greatest documentaries of all time: Errol Morris’s first three films, Gates of Heaven, Vernon, Florida, and The Thin Blue Line. Re-watching these films, it’s at times odd to think that the same man made them: Gates of Heaven is the deadpan, deliberate tale of pet cemeteries in California; Vernon, Florida is a weirdly meditative, austere portrait of the offbeat personalities in a rural southern town. And The Thin Blue Line, one of the most influential documentaries of all time, is a gripping investigation into a cop killing in Texas — complete with an evocatively tense Philip Glass score, stylized cinematography, and detailed, cinematic slow-motion reenactments. (The film was famously instrumental in the eventual release of Randall Dale Adams, who had been wrongfully convicted of the murder and condemned to die in the electric chair.) But...
- 3/27/2015
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies We know this won't be the last we hear of The Hobbit as there will have to be the release of the extended edition and then there are box sets to consider, but we are getting closer to the end of our association with Middle Earth and it actually reminds me, what is Peter Jackson going to do nowc
Unbroken It's amazing to think that about a year ago we all thought this one had the best chance at winning Best Picture and now here we are, a year later and no one could really care less.
Into the Woods I really disliked this movie, but Mike, our resident lover of musicals, loved it. It's a story that cares nothing for its characters and feels like two movies smushed together to form a Frankenstein of a musical, and wow, the songs, I'm...
Unbroken It's amazing to think that about a year ago we all thought this one had the best chance at winning Best Picture and now here we are, a year later and no one could really care less.
Into the Woods I really disliked this movie, but Mike, our resident lover of musicals, loved it. It's a story that cares nothing for its characters and feels like two movies smushed together to form a Frankenstein of a musical, and wow, the songs, I'm...
- 3/24/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
You'd think people would be happy with the finale this past Sunday of HBO's docu-series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," Not only did the six-episode true-crime drama end with the kind of neat apparent-confession that real life seldom drops into the laps of journalists, but the episode was preceded by less than 24 hours by the actual arrest of its subject on a murder charge related to the crimes discussed on the show. Viewers got a bang-up ending, and the victims' families finally get to see the alleged killer face a court of law. Everybody wins, right?
And yet, there's been nothing but handwringing over the ethical questions raised by the conduct of filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling and the fortuitous timing of the arrest. Jarecki and Smerling taped Durst's seemingly self-incriminating remarks ("What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.") during a 2012 interview,...
And yet, there's been nothing but handwringing over the ethical questions raised by the conduct of filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling and the fortuitous timing of the arrest. Jarecki and Smerling taped Durst's seemingly self-incriminating remarks ("What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.") during a 2012 interview,...
- 3/20/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
You'd think people would be happy with the finale this past Sunday of HBO's docu-series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," Not only did the six-episode true-crime drama end with the kind of neat apparent-confession that real life seldom drops into the laps of journalists, but the episode was preceded by less than 24 hours by the actual arrest of its subject on a murder charge related to the crimes discussed on the show. Viewers got a bang-up ending, and the victims' families finally get to see the alleged killer face a court of law. Everybody wins, right?
And yet, there's been nothing but handwringing over the ethical questions raised by the conduct of filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling and the fortuitous timing of the arrest. Jarecki and Smerling taped Durst's seemingly self-incriminating remarks ("What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.") during a 2012 interview,...
And yet, there's been nothing but handwringing over the ethical questions raised by the conduct of filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling and the fortuitous timing of the arrest. Jarecki and Smerling taped Durst's seemingly self-incriminating remarks ("What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.") during a 2012 interview,...
- 3/19/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Harvey Weinstein is one of the most powerful, outspoken, and controversial men in Hollywood. The studio executive who launched Miramax and The Weinstein Company is a passionate film lover, a master promoter, a ruthless Oscar campaigner, and just about everything else you need to be in order to make it to the top in the business. Even if you find what he does unscrupulous or the content he produces not very good, it is hard not to admire the man for how successful he has made himself, no matter how frustrating it might be. Weinstein recently had a chat with Deadline, covering a wide variety of topics from the Netflix series "Marco Polo" to the troubles with the upcoming Broadway musical adaptation of Finding Neverland to Oscar campaigning to his reputation of recutting films, giving him the nickname "Harvey Scissorhands." I had no idea the Weinsteins were behind "Marco Polo...
- 1/26/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
- 1/23/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
From fizzy drink sizes to video nasties to employment law, we look at the films that had an impact on legislation as well as culture...
Some films appear in the cinema, entertain their audience, make their money, and then dutifully shuffle off into the mists of history, only to be wheeled out now and again on TV. But occasionally, one comes along that has a lasting impact, and every so often, a movie has at least some influence on an eventual change in the law.
Here, we're going to look at a few examples of that, as we examine a selection of films that have had an impact more lasting than how much they made at the box office...
Scum
Originally conceived as a BBC Play For Today, Alan Clarke's Scum was pulled by the corporation from its broadcast schedules. Undeterred, Clarke and writer Roy Minton reworked it as a film,...
Some films appear in the cinema, entertain their audience, make their money, and then dutifully shuffle off into the mists of history, only to be wheeled out now and again on TV. But occasionally, one comes along that has a lasting impact, and every so often, a movie has at least some influence on an eventual change in the law.
Here, we're going to look at a few examples of that, as we examine a selection of films that have had an impact more lasting than how much they made at the box office...
Scum
Originally conceived as a BBC Play For Today, Alan Clarke's Scum was pulled by the corporation from its broadcast schedules. Undeterred, Clarke and writer Roy Minton reworked it as a film,...
- 8/28/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Beyond The Edge is a tale of insurmountable odds. As a documentary recounting the 1953 expedition to the tip of Mount Everest, which saw Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay become the first to reach its summit, it takes quotes collected from the years since the journey and blends them with dramatic reconstructions of key points in their story. Reenactment has almost become an artform in its own right within the documentary format; in showing us something constructed as artifice, we’re given a rare chance to glean the truth. But it’s not as old as you’d think. So where did the trend originate from? How has it impacted how we make and – more importantly – watch documentaries?
The popularisation of reenactment can easily be traced back to 1988, when Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line first wowed audiences and critics. The film revisited a murder case from 1976, in which Randall Adams...
The popularisation of reenactment can easily be traced back to 1988, when Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line first wowed audiences and critics. The film revisited a murder case from 1976, in which Randall Adams...
- 5/23/2014
- by Gary Green
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Imagine you save a man from Death Row – and he ends up suing you for 'stealing' his life story. That is what happened to Errol Morris after his 1988 film, The Thin Blue Line. The Oscar-winning 66-year-old filmmaker (whose documentary, The Unknown Known, about politician Donald Rumsfeld, has just been released in the UK) is still perplexed by the legal action that Randall Dale Adams, the man wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer in Texas, took against him.
- 3/29/2014
- The Independent - Film
He’s won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. His debut is in Roger Ebert’s 10 Greatest Films of All Time. He was instrumental to solving a murder case. He made Werner Herzog eat his shoe. He needs no real introduction, for Errol Morris is one of the world’s best makers of documentaries, if not the best.
In light of his forthcoming new film, The Unknown Known, which concerns ex-us Secretary of Defense and his interesting use of political language, Errol sat down with HeyUGuys and spoke at length about everything from his own obsessions, the legacy of The Thin Blue Line, the rise of digital technology in cinema, and Rumsfeld’s smile.
I guess I’d like to start by asking a very basic question. How did you manage to get Donald Rumsfeld to sit down and be interviewed?
I asked him. You know, there’s no great...
In light of his forthcoming new film, The Unknown Known, which concerns ex-us Secretary of Defense and his interesting use of political language, Errol sat down with HeyUGuys and spoke at length about everything from his own obsessions, the legacy of The Thin Blue Line, the rise of digital technology in cinema, and Rumsfeld’s smile.
I guess I’d like to start by asking a very basic question. How did you manage to get Donald Rumsfeld to sit down and be interviewed?
I asked him. You know, there’s no great...
- 3/20/2014
- by Gary Green
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Cinema, as Jean-Luc Godard wrote, is truth 24 times a second. Documentaries both prove and disprove the point; but the truth is their strongest weapon. Here, Guardian and Observer critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Man With a Movie Camera
To best understand this 1929 silent documentary, one ought to know that its director, the exotically named "Dziga Vertov", was actually born David Abelevich Kaufman in 1896. Some say the name derives from the Russian word for spinning top, but the pseudonym is more likely an onomatopeic approximation of the sound made by the twin reels of film as the director ran them backwards and forwards through his flatbed editor. For Vertov, film was something physical, to be manipulated by man, and yet, paradoxically, he also saw it as a medium...
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Man With a Movie Camera
To best understand this 1929 silent documentary, one ought to know that its director, the exotically named "Dziga Vertov", was actually born David Abelevich Kaufman in 1896. Some say the name derives from the Russian word for spinning top, but the pseudonym is more likely an onomatopeic approximation of the sound made by the twin reels of film as the director ran them backwards and forwards through his flatbed editor. For Vertov, film was something physical, to be manipulated by man, and yet, paradoxically, he also saw it as a medium...
- 11/12/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
The Letters of Note blog has unearthed a fantastic 1988 letter from Harvey Weinstein to documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. In it, Weinstein tells Morris that his NPR interview for the yet-to-be-released "The Thin Blue Line" wasn't so hot: "You were boring. You couldn't have dragged me to see 'The Thin Blue Line' if my life depended on it." Ouch. Full letter below. As a reminder, "The Thin Blue Line" is now seen as a landmark documentary, it won numerous awards, and most notably exonerated the film's main subject, Randall Dale Adams, from Death Row -- which also ultimately proved incredible publicity for Weinstein's Miramax. But before all this came to pass, Morris, per Weinstein's letter, needed to "start being a performer and understand the media." Weinstein also has some ideas about how Morris could spice up his description of the film ("It's scarier than Nightmare On Elm Street"), and goes on...
- 7/12/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Director Errol Morris has made a career out of solving mysteries, which comes as no surprise since the man used to be a private detective. Whether he was exonerating Randall Dale Adams in The Thin Blue Line or unraveling a sordid sex tale in Tabloid, Morris has deftly used his subjects to provide gripping accounts of situations that have been wrapped in intrigue and ambiguity. In his book, Believing is Seeing, Morris turns his attention to the art of photography. In a series of photographic whodunnits, Morris explores the truth-telling capacity of photos. His conclusion? "Photographs don't have truth value." I had a chance to sit down with Morris in his Cambridge, Ma office during his recent book tour and chat extensively with him about the nature of photography, the plausibility of re-enactments, and Joyce McKinney's controversial reaction to Tabloid [1]. After the break, read highlights of my discussion with Morris.
- 1/20/2012
- by David Chen
- Slash Film
The application of the death penalty in the sentencing of criminal cases has been an issue that continues to divide this country. A few months ago, at one of the many Gop presidential debates, the moderator noted the number of executions performed while Rick Perry was governor of Texas. This elicited gales of wild applause from the debate audience, while many pundits were shocked at the reaction. For his latest feature film documentary, director Werner Herzog traveled to that state to take a closer look at this divisive topic by focusing in on a horrific crime and the two young men who were brought to justice and met very different fates.
In the small, sleepy town of Conroe, Texas Michael Perry and Jason Burkett were found guilty in the death of Sandra Stotler, her teenage son, and his school pal. It seemed that Perry and Burkett shot the three for a few dollars,...
In the small, sleepy town of Conroe, Texas Michael Perry and Jason Burkett were found guilty in the death of Sandra Stotler, her teenage son, and his school pal. It seemed that Perry and Burkett shot the three for a few dollars,...
- 11/23/2011
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The documentary-maker talks to Sukhdev Sandhu about working as a private detective, breaking into a mental hospital and the spat with Us beauty queen Joyce McKinney over his new film, Tabloid
This is weird. The documentary film-maker Errol Morris says he likes the Guardian – "It's my favourite paper" – but, sitting in the lobby of a sleekly manicured hotel in New York's SoHo district to talk about his work, it's not clear if he likes documentaries very much. "This is going to get me depressed," he groans. "I feel as if I became a documentary film-maker only because I had writer's block for four decades. There's no other good reason. I don't know what I should be doing. I'm tired of everything – mostly of myself."
It's weird not because Morris is being downbeat – after all, he once had a magazine column entitled The Grump; a typical post on his Twitter account...
This is weird. The documentary film-maker Errol Morris says he likes the Guardian – "It's my favourite paper" – but, sitting in the lobby of a sleekly manicured hotel in New York's SoHo district to talk about his work, it's not clear if he likes documentaries very much. "This is going to get me depressed," he groans. "I feel as if I became a documentary film-maker only because I had writer's block for four decades. There's no other good reason. I don't know what I should be doing. I'm tired of everything – mostly of myself."
It's weird not because Morris is being downbeat – after all, he once had a magazine column entitled The Grump; a typical post on his Twitter account...
- 10/28/2011
- by Sukhdev Sandhu
- The Guardian - Film News
The Creative Impact award aims to honour those film-makers whose documentaries bring burning issues to our attention. But just how effective are they?
Movie people are forever telling the rest of us that movies can change the world – but they would say that, wouldn't they? It justifies the outrageous salaries, the decadent lifestyles and the grandiose awards acceptance speeches. Certainly, if James Cameron could point to figures detailing a fall in ocean-liner/iceberg collisions following Titanic's release, his "I'm the king of the world!" Oscar proclamation might have been more forgivable. But beyond the bluster of Hollywood and the joy of escapism, what kind of real-world impact can cinema really have?
The creators of the Puma Creative Impact award believe it can be massive. Its stated aim? "To honour the documentary film creating the most significant impact in the world." As the documentarist Morgan Spurlock, a juror for the award,...
Movie people are forever telling the rest of us that movies can change the world – but they would say that, wouldn't they? It justifies the outrageous salaries, the decadent lifestyles and the grandiose awards acceptance speeches. Certainly, if James Cameron could point to figures detailing a fall in ocean-liner/iceberg collisions following Titanic's release, his "I'm the king of the world!" Oscar proclamation might have been more forgivable. But beyond the bluster of Hollywood and the joy of escapism, what kind of real-world impact can cinema really have?
The creators of the Puma Creative Impact award believe it can be massive. Its stated aim? "To honour the documentary film creating the most significant impact in the world." As the documentarist Morgan Spurlock, a juror for the award,...
- 10/6/2011
- by Morgan Spurlock, Ellen E Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans (2003) is a stunning piece of documentary journalism that is particularly memorable for following through in its act of walking the tight rope of impartiality. Unlike Errol Morris's equally wonderful The Thin Blue Line (1988), which combines noir, documentary, and dark comedy into a thought provoking and infuriating defense of convicted (yet innocent) murderer Randall Dale Adams, Jarecki's film does not attempt to exonerate Arnold Friedman, a high school science teacher who gave computer lessons in his free time, of sexual child abuse. When the film begins we feel a gaze much like Morris's; the Friedmans are an eccentric family: throughout the accusations, trial, and sentencing, one of Arnold's children, birthday clown David Friedman, filmed the family. Jarecki's documentary consists of interviews and David's original footage. We begin the film, after discovering that federal officials were drawn to Arnold after monitoring his mail for an order of child pornography,...
- 7/22/2011
- by Drew Morton
Joyce McKinney, the focal point of Errol Morris' lens in Tabloid.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
- 7/18/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
For over 30 years, director Errol Morris has been making provocative documentaries about people ranging from the iconic (The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time) to the eccentric (Gates of Heaven, Mr. Death, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control). With his film The Thin Blue Line, he even rescued an innocent man (Randall Adams) from Death Row in Texas, which likely inspired the various 'innocence projects' that have sprung up in the 20 years since. So while his movies are hard to pigeonhole, one thing's for sure: anytime an Errol Morris movie hits theaters, it's an automatic must-see for serious fans of documentary. With his latest film, Morris - a former private investigator - U-turns from his recent serious fare (Standard Operating Procedure, Tff 2008) back to the absurd, and there's only one way to describe the result: Tabloid is a hoot. The story centers on the decades-old escapades of one Joyce McKinney,...
- 7/15/2011
- TribecaFilm.com
The director of Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland on the power of 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line
When it was released, Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line went radically against the grain of documentary convention. The film made something artful out of a horrific real-life event – it changed the trajectory of my career. The film is about the wrongful imprisonment of a man, Randall Adams, following the murder of a Texas police officer in 1976. Morris uses a combination of interviews and tasteful reconstruction to create a full picture of the case, which ultimately ended with Adams' acquittal after 12 years in prison.
Morris's film is a minefield of complexity, one that mirrors all the grey areas inherent in a murder trial. His interviews, conducted against a neutral backdrop, expose different versions of events and their many contradictions. The result is strangely epistemological: it raises questions around...
When it was released, Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line went radically against the grain of documentary convention. The film made something artful out of a horrific real-life event – it changed the trajectory of my career. The film is about the wrongful imprisonment of a man, Randall Adams, following the murder of a Texas police officer in 1976. Morris uses a combination of interviews and tasteful reconstruction to create a full picture of the case, which ultimately ended with Adams' acquittal after 12 years in prison.
Morris's film is a minefield of complexity, one that mirrors all the grey areas inherent in a murder trial. His interviews, conducted against a neutral backdrop, expose different versions of events and their many contradictions. The result is strangely epistemological: it raises questions around...
- 6/12/2011
- by Mina Holland, Kevin Macdonald
- The Guardian - Film News
Some of the most entertaining moments in the movie business come about when one overbearing personality gets a chance not just to be a total dick to another, but to be relatively justified in doing so. Harvey Weinstein is a master of these moments. When thinking about talking crap about the responsibilities of Mr. Weinstein, you should be prepared for a scathing response. In 1988, Errol Morris got a taste of Weinstein's ability to dress down filmmakers in his employ when Morris complained about Miramax's efforts to promote his film The Thin Blue Line. The movie's place in history is well-known by now (as the subject of the film, convicted killer Randall Adams, was exonerated after its release) but at the time Morris thought Harvey needed to do more to sell the film. As it turns out, Harvey thought exactly the same thing about Morris, as a letter sent to the...
- 1/25/2010
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
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