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Errol Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American Academy Award winning documentary film director. Events 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality In 2003 The Guardian listed him as number seven in their list of the world's 40 best directors. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Morris was born in Hewlett, New York on February 5, 1948. Hewlett is a hamlet and Census-designated place (CDP in Nassau County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. Events 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. When he was two years old, Morris' father died of a heart attack. His mother, a Juilliard graduate, supported Morris and his brothers as a music teacher. The Juilliard School, located in New York City, is a world renowned Performing arts conservatory. In the 10th grade, Morris enrolled at the Putney School, a boarding school in Vermont. The Putney School is an independent High school in Putney Vermont. He began playing the cello, spending a summer in France studying music under the acclaimed Nadia Boulanger, who was the principal teacher of Philip Glass, who would eventually score The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time, and The Fog of War. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Nadia Boulanger (September 16 1887 &ndash October 22 1979 was an influential French Composer, conductor, and Music professor WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Philip Glass (born January 31 The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 Documentary film concerning the November 28 1976 murder of Dallas police officer Robert W A Brief History of Time is a 1991 Documentary film about the Physicist Stephen Hawking, directed by Errol Morris The Fog of War Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara (2003 directed by Errol Morris, is an American Documentary film about the life Describing Morris as a teenager, Mark Singer wrote that he "read with a passion the forty-odd Oz books, watched a lot of television, and on a regular basis went with a doting but not quite right maiden aunt ("I guess you'd have to say that Aunt Roz was somewhat demented") to Saturday matinées, where he saw stuff like This Island Earth and Creature from the Black Lagoon — horror movies that, viewed again thirty years later, still seem scary to him. "[1]

As an undergrad Morris attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1969 with a B.A. in history. For a brief time Morris held small jobs, first as a cable television salesman and then as a term-paper writer. His unorthodox approach to applying for grad school included, "trying to get accepted at different graduate schools just by showing up on their doorstep. " Having unsuccessfully approached both the University of Oxford and Harvard University, Morris was able to talk his way into Princeton University, where he began studying the history of science, a topic in which he had "absolutely no background. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. " His concentration was on the history of physics, and he was bored and unsuccessful in the prerequisite physics classes he had to take. This, together with his antagonistic relationship with his advisor ("'You won't even look through my telescope. ' And his response was 'Errol, it's not a telescope, it's a kaleidoscope. '"[1]) ensured that his stay at Princeton would be short. He left Princeton in 1972, enrolling at Berkeley as a Ph. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley D. student in philosophy. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language At Berkeley Morris once again found that he was not well-suited for his subject. "Berkeley was just a world of pedants. It was truly shocking. I spent two or three years in the philosophy program. I have very bad feelings about it," he later said. [1] He became a regular at the Pacific Film Archive, as Tom Luddy, the director of the archive at the time, later remembered: "He was a film noir nut. The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA is associated with the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley California. Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation He claimed we weren't showing the real film noir. So I challenged him to write the program notes. Then, there was his habit of sneaking into the films and denying that he was sneaking in. I told him if he was sneaking in he should at least admit he was doing it. "[1]

Losing interest in his studies, Morris visited Plainfield, Wisconsin in 1975. Plainfield is a village in Waushara County, Wisconsin, United States. While there, he conducted multiple interviews with Ed Gein, the infamous serial killer. A serial killer is a person who Murders usually three or more people with a "cooling off" period between each murder and whose motivation for killing is largely based He later made plans with German director Werner Herzog, whom Tom Luddy had introduced to Morris, to return in the summer of 1975 to secretly open the grave of Gein's mother to test their theory that Gein himself had already dug her up. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film. Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Herzog arrived on schedule, but Morris had second thoughts and was not there. Herzog did not open the grave. Morris later returned to Plainfield, this time staying for almost a year, conducting hundreds of hours of interviews. Although he had plans to either write a book or make a film (which he would call Digging up the Past), Morris never completed his Ed Gein project. In the fall of 1976, Werner Herzog visited Plainfield again, this time to use the scenery for some shots in his film Stroszek. Stroszek is a 1977 film by German director Werner Herzog. It was written in four days specifically for Bruno S After the shooting finished, Herzog handed Morris an envelope full of cash. Morris walked over to the motel window and tossed the envelope out the window into a parking lot. Herzog went out to the parking lot and brought the money back, again offering it to Morris, saying, "Please don't do that again. "[1] Morris accepted the $2,000 and used it to take a trip to Vernon, Florida. Vernon is a city in Washington County, Florida, United States. Vernon was nicknamed Nub City because its residents participated in a particularly morbid form of insurance fraud where they deliberately amputate a limb in order to collect the insurance money. "In the hierarchy of nubbiedom, the supremely rewarding self-sacrifice was the loss of a right leg and a left arm, because, so the theory went, 'afterward, you could still write your name and still have a foot to press the gas pedal of your Cadillac. '"[1] Morris' second documentary would be about the town and bear its name, although it makes no mention of Vernon, Florida as Nub City, but instead explores other idiosyncrasies of the town's residents. Morris made this omission because of the death threats he received while doing research; the town's residents were afraid that Morris would reveal their secret.

After spending two weeks in Vernon, Morris returned to Berkeley and began working on a fictional script that he called Nub City. After a few unproductive months, he happened to read a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that read, "450 DEAD PETS GOING TO NAPA VALLEY". The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H Morris left for Napa Valley and began working on the film that would become his first feature, Gates of Heaven. Gates of Heaven is a 1978 Documentary film by Errol Morris about the Pet cemetery business In 1978 when the film premiered, Werner Herzog cooked and publicly ate his shoe, an event later incorporated into a short documentary by Les Blank. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe is a short documentary film directed by Les Blank in 1980 which depicts director Werner Herzog living up to Les Blank (b 27 November 1935, Tampa, Florida, United States) is an American documentary filmmaker best known Herzog had promised to eat his shoe if Morris completed the project, to challenge and encourage Morris, whom Herzog perceived as incapable of following up on the projects he conceived. At the public shoe-eating, Herzog suggested that he hoped the act would serve to encourage anyone having difficulty bringing a project to fruition.

Early career as a film-maker

Gates of Heaven was given a limited release in the spring of 1981. Gates of Heaven is a 1978 Documentary film by Errol Morris about the Pet cemetery business Critic Roger Ebert was and remains today a champion of the film, including it on his top ten best films list. Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. Morris returned to Vernon in 1979 and again in 1980, renting a house in town and conducting interviews with the town's citizens. Vernon, FL premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival. Vernon is a city in Washington County, Florida, United States. The New York Film Festival is the one of the most important film festivals in the United States first held in 1963 in New York. Newsweek called it, "a film as odd and mysterious as its subjects, and quite unforgettable. Newsweek is an American weekly Newsmagazine published in New York City. " The film, like Gates of Heaven, suffered from poor distribution. Gates of Heaven is a 1978 Documentary film by Errol Morris about the Pet cemetery business It was released on video in 1987, and DVD in 2005.

After finishing Vernon, FL, Morris tried unsuccessfully to get funding for a variety of projects. Vernon Florida is a 1981 Documentary film produced and directed by Errol Morris profiling various eccentric residents living within the town of Vernon There was Road, a story about an interstate-highway in Minnesota; a project about Robert Golka, the creator of laser-induced fireballs in Utah; and the story of Centralia, PA, the coal town in which an "inextinguishable subterranean fire" ignited in 1962. Centralia is a borough in Columbia County Pennsylvania, United States. He eventually got funding in 1983 to write a script about John and Jim Pardue, a pair of Missouri bank robbers who had killed their father and grandmother and robbed five banks. Morris' pitch went, "The great bank-robbery sprees always take place at a time when something is going wrong in the country. Bonnie and Clyde were apolitical, but it's impossible to imagine them without the Depression as a back-drop. The Pardue brothers were apolitical, but it's impossible to imagine them without Vietnam. Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially " Morris wanted Tom Waits and Mickey Rourke to play the brothers, and he wrote the script, but the project eventually failed. Thomas Alan Waits (born 7 December 1949) is an American Singer-songwriter, Composer, and Actor. Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr (born September 16, 1952 in Schenectady New York) is an American Actor, who has appeared Morris worked on writing scripts for various other projects, including a pair of ill-fated Stephen King adaptations. Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American Author, Screenwriter, Musician, Columnist,

In 1984 he married Julia Sheehan, whom he had met in Plainfield while researching Ed Gein. Morris would later recall an early conversation with Julia: "I was talking to a mass murderer but I was thinking of you," he said, and instantly regretted it, afraid that it might not have sounded as affectionate as he had wished. But Julia was actually flattered: "I thought, really, that was one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me. It was hard to go out with other guys after that. "

In 1985, Morris became interested in Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist in Dallas. Under Texas law, the death penalty can only be issued if the jury is convinced that the defendant is not only guilty, but will commit further violent crimes in the future if he is not put to death. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Grigson had spent 15 years testifying for such cases, and he almost invariably gave the same damning testimony, often saying that it is "one hundred per cent certain" that the defendant would kill again. This led to Grigson being nicknamed "Dr. Death". Through Grigson, Morris would meet the subject of his next film, 36 year-old Randall Dale Adams. Randall Dale Adams (born 1949 is a man convicted of a Murder that he did not commit

Adams was serving a life sentence that had been commuted from a death sentence on a legal technicality for the 1976 murder of Robert Wood, a Dallas police officer. Adams told Morris that he had been framed, and that David Harris, who was present at the time of the murder and was the principal witness for the prosecution, had in fact killed Wood. Morris began researching the case because it related to Dr. Grigson; he was at first unconvinced of Adams' innocence. After reading the transcripts of the trial and meeting David Harris at a bar, however, Morris was no longer so sure.

At the time, Morris had been making a living as a private investigator for a well-known private detective agency that specialized in Wall Street cases. Bringing together his talents as an investigator and his obsessions with murder, narration and epistemology, Morris went to work on the case in earnest. Unedited interviews in which the prosecution's witnesses systematically contradicted themselves were used as testimony in Adams' 1986 habeas corpus hearing to determine if he would receive a new trial. Habeas corpus (ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔɹpəs ( Latin: command that you have the body is the name of a legal action or Writ, through which a person can seek relief David Harris famously confessed, in a roundabout manner, to killing Wood. Although Adams was finally found innocent after years of being processed by the legal system, the judge in the habeas corpus hearing officially stated that, "much could be said about those videotape interviews, but nothing that would have any bearing on the matter before this court. " Regardless, The Thin Blue Line, as Morris' film would be called, was popularly accepted as the main force behind getting its subject, Randall Adams, out of prison. The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 Documentary film concerning the November 28 1976 murder of Dallas police officer Robert W

According to a survey by The Washington Post, The Thin Blue Line made dozens of critics' top ten lists for 1988, more than any other film that year. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 Documentary film concerning the November 28 1976 murder of Dallas police officer Robert W It won the documentary of the year award from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. New York Film Critics Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City -based publications The National Society of Film Critics or NSFC is an American Film critic organization Despite its widespread acclaim, it was not nominated for an Oscar, which created a small scandal regarding the nomination practices of the Academy. The Academy cited the film's genre of "non-fiction", arguing that it was not actually a documentary. The Thin Blue Line is to this day one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries ever made.

The Interrotron

The name "Interrotron" was coined by Morris's wife, who, according to Morris, "liked the name because it combined two important concepts — terror and interview. "[2] The device is similar to a teleprompter: Errol and his subject each sit facing a camera. The image of each person's face is then projected onto the lens of the other's camera. Instead of looking at a blank lens, then, both Morris and his subject are looking directly at a human face. (Diagram.) Morris believes that the machine encourages monologue in the interview process, while also encouraging the interviewees to "express themselves to [the] camera". [3]

First Person

Morris used this process to film his critically acclaimed television show, First Person (2000). The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals.

Episodes with people interviewed:

Commercials

Although Morris has achieved fame as a documentary filmmaker, he is also an accomplished director of television commercials. Most Evil is an American Forensics Television program on Investigation Discovery starring Forensic psychiatrist Michael Forensic pathology is a branch of Pathology concerned with determining the Cause of death by examination of a cadaver List of countries by homicide rate Homicide ( Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut kill refers to the act of killing another A television advertisement or television commercial (often just commercial or advert (US or ad (UK is a span of television programming produced In 2002, Morris directed a series of television ads for Apple Computer as part of a popular "Switch" campaign. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics The commercials featured ex-Windows users discussing their various bad experiences that motivated their own personal switches to Macintosh. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. One commercial in the series, starring a high-school friend of his son Hamilton Morris, named Ellen Feiss, became an Internet fad. Ellen Feiss (born circa 1987 became an Internet phenomenon after her 2002 Errol Morris -directed Television Morris has directed hundreds of commercials for various companies and products, including Adidas, AIG, Cisco Systems, Citibank, Levi's, Miller High Life, Nike, PBS, The Quaker Oats Company, Southern Comfort, Toyota and Volkswagen. WikipediaManual of Style (trademarks, which says "Lowercased trademarks with no internal Citibank is a major international Bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. Levi Strauss & Co (LS&CO is a privately held Clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of Denim Jeans. Miller Brewing Company is the second largest American style Beermaker and is based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, United States. Nike Inc ('naɪki ( is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the The Quaker Oats Company is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. Southern Comfort is a fruit spice and whiskey flavored Liqueur produced since 1874 (pronounced) is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Japan, and is currently the world's largest Automaker. Many of these commercials are available on his website.

In 2002, Morris was commissioned to make a short film for the 75th Academy Awards. The 75th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2002, were held on March 23 2003, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood California He was hired based on his advertising resume, not his career as a director of feature-length documentaries. Those interviewed ranged from Laura Bush to Iggy Pop to Kenneth Arrow to Morris's 15 year old son Hamilton Morris . Laura Lane Welch Bush (born November 4 1946 is the wife of the forty-third and current President of the United States, George W James Newell Osterberg Jr (born April 21, 1947) better known by his Stage name Iggy Pop, is an American rock singer Songwriter Kenneth Joseph Arrow (born August 23, 1921) is an American Economist and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Morris was nominated for an Emmy for this short film. He considered editing this footage into a feature length film, focusing specifically on Donald Trump discussing Citizen Kane (This segment was later released on the second issue of Wholphin). Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American Business magnate, Socialite, Television personality, and Citizen Kane ( 1941) is an American Dramatic film, and the first Feature film directed by Orson Welles, who also co-authored Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine containing a selection of short films which have had little or no Morris went on to make a second short for the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, this time interviewing the various nominees and asking them about their Oscar experiences. The 79th Academy Awards ceremony (also known as the Oscars) honoring the best in film for 2006, took place on February 25 2007 500 p

In July 2004, Morris directed another series of commercials in the style of the "Switch" ads. This campaign featured Republicans who voted for Bush in the 2000 election giving their personal reasons for voting for Kerry in 2004. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States. The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Democratic candidate Al Gore, then Vice President, and Republican } John Forbes Kerry (born December 11 1943 is an American Politician who is currently serving his fourth term as the junior United States Senator Upon completing more than 50 commercials, Morris had difficulty getting them on the air. Eventually the liberal advocacy group MoveOn PAC paid to air a few of the commercials. MoveOn is an American non-profit progressive liberal public policy advocacy group and Political action committee which has raised millions of In the US, a Political Action Committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group regardless of size organized to elect political candidates Morris eventually wrote an editorial for the New York Times discussing the commercials and Kerry's losing campaign.

In the fall of 2004, Morris also directed a series of noteworthy commercials for Sharp Electronics. () is a Japanese Electronics manufacturer founded in 1912 It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions the Ever-Sharp Mechanical pencil, which The commercials enigmatically depicted various scenes from what appeared to be a short narrative that climaxed with a car crashing into a swimming pool. Each commercial showed a slightly different perspective on the events, and each ended with a cryptic weblink. The weblink was to a fake webpage advertising a prize offered to anyone who could discover the secret location of some valuable urns. It was in fact an alternate reality game. An alternate reality game ( ARG) is an interactive Narrative that uses the real world as a platform often involving multiple media and game elements to tell The original commercials can be found on Morris' website.

Films by Errol Morris

Films about Errol Morris

Awards

Further reading

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f Singer, Mark (February 2, 1989). "Predilections". The New Yorker. The New Yorker is an American Magazine that publishes reportage commentary criticism essays fiction satire cartoons and poetry  
  2. ^ "THE FOG OF WAR: 13 Questions and Answers on the Filmmaking of Errol Morris by Errol Morris", FLM Magazine Winter 2004 "[1]"
  3. ^ "Interviews: Errol Morris" "[2]"

External links


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