i think i have an abnormal liking for documentaries.
but i like them. so yay.
anyways, my favourite, and arguably the best documentary filmmaker is errol morris, who i trust is known to most of you guys.
he's done such greats as a brief history of time (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0103882), fast, cheap & out of control (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119107), mr. death: the rise and fall of fred a. leuchter, jr. (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0192335) and, the most important and greatest - the thin blue line (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0096257).
discuss. comment. flame.
I haven't seen as many as I probably should have...only Mr. Death and The Thin Blue Line (which really is incredible). The thing I love about his documentaries is that he treats them like narrative films. The recreations in Thin Blue Line added so much that a simple description or diagram would never have been able to do.
Other docs that I love: Hearts Of Darkness, 2 Days In September (one of the most suspensful movies I've ever seen), and of course Michael Moore's stuff. And Lost In La Mancha is probably climbing up there, too.
I'm in Snap's camp on this one. I, too, love documentaries when they're done well.
The thing about documentaries is that when they're bad, they're really bad. And when they're good, they're really good. There's almost no in between.
I've seen some really horrible documentaries (Journeys with George) and some kick ass ones.
I still haven't seen The Thin Blue Line because Netflix doesn't have it. I want to see it so bad. I have seen Errol Morris' IFC show. I think I heard he used almost 20 cameras in a single interview for that show? It was pretty excellent - the ones I saw.
I want to make a documentary of my own, but I fear that it'll be really bad and I won't know it because I'm too close to the subject. That's a fine line you have to walk, I think.
Quote from: XixaxThe thing about documentaries is that when they're bad, they're really bad. And when they're good, they're really good. There's almost no in between.
I think Genghis Blues kind of falls in between. Great story, but kind of poorly done overall. Really interesting though.
Quote from: XixaxI still haven't seen The Thin Blue Line because Netflix doesn't have it.
it's not on dvd [i'm almost positive], that's why. the only real way to see it is by buying it or just being lucky enough for your video store to carry it.
i had to buy it, but i was already an errol morris fan so i didn't mind coughing up some change. amazon had it for only about ten bucks. unfortunately now, it's out of stock.
Glad to see some other people who appreciate Errol Morris. I've seen all of his films and they are all wonderful. However, Gates of Heaven is my runner-up for favorite movie of all time. It's a documentary about this pet cemetary that closes down in California and the new cemetary that the pets are moved to. It's a remarkably deep movie that's funny and tragic at the same time. Saying it's a movie about pet cemetaries is like saying The Godfather is a movie about the mafia. That's just the surface.
"Crumb" is one of the best docs ever made.
Ah yes, I second that one. That's the only documentary (so far) that's ever made me cry. EXCEPT for a Morris documentary I forgot, Gates Of Heaven. Dead pets can break anyone down.
Vernon, FL is an interesting movie too. It only runs about an hour and it's basically a conglomeration of backwoods philosophy. Very interesting movie. The story I've heard is that Errol Morris came there because there were stories of people cutting off their limbs for insurance money. Morris shot his movie there and then he started getting death threats from the people, so he decided to focus more on their philosophy and completely abandon the original premise. Still turned into an excellent movie. I went to school a couple hours east of Vernon, so we had to drop in on it one day. Not much has changed.
If sidney didn't bring it up, I was going to: "Gates of Heaven" is a classic documentary. Anybody here know the story of Herzog telling Morris that if he makes a picture, that legendary visionary would eat his own shoe? And then of course, "Gates" was made and the rest was history.. Les Blank, the documentarian who fade "Burden of Dreams", the doc on "Fitzcarraldo", made a doc called "Werner Herzog Eats His Own Shoe".. I haven't seen it but its supposed to be wonderful. Herzog eats his shoe while talking about life and such. Other brilliant docs I like were "Shoah", "Hoop Dreams", and as MacGuffin already mentioned: "Crumb", which I was watching again on TV today.
Some other great docs:
Salesman (great Criterion edition)
Startup.com
Sherman's March (can we consider that a doc?)
American Movie
Two other thoughts:
1. There NEEDS to be Thin Blue Line DVD, dammit
2. The amazing Shoah is coming out in September on DVD
Sundance is such a great source for documentaries. I saw a great one last night about "cane toads" in Australia.
Documentaries, when they're well made, just suck me in. A good documentarian could make me sit through 2 hours of baking a cake and I'd love every second of it.
i also haven't seen The Thin Blue Line. someone let me borrow their copy.
best tagline ever.
Quote from: dufresnebest tagline ever.
yessir.
yeah errol morris is a great filmmaker.. look at this trivia for The Thin Blue Line:
-The release of this film, resulted in Randall Adams' case being reopened. He was exonerated.
that's common knowledge and is testament to the quality of the film, but apparently:
- After Randall Adams was released from prison because of new evidence in the film, he sued the director of the film for allegedly misrepresenting him.
is this for real? what an ungrateful fucko, seriously tho. what the eff.
he gets the dude out of prison and the dude is still not happy? what'd he want, rights to the film's domestic grosses? he should make another docummentary and call it "randall adams can lick my balls."
A really good documentary -- if it can be called that -- is coming out Friday called American Splendor. It mixes live action with documentary footage. One of the best films of the year.
Errol Morris has a pretty cool website. Click below:
http://errolmor.phpwebhosting.com/main.php
Quote from: mutinycoA really good documentary -- if it can be called that -- is coming out Friday called American Splendor. It mixes live action with documentary footage. One of the best films of the year.
hav u seen this (http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=2674&highlight)?
I saw Errol Morris's new movie 'The Fog Of War' the other night, and it is REALLY good. It's completely subjective...it's like The World According To Robert MacNamara. You come out of it very much in admiration of the man...if I had been alive in the sixties, I'd have disliked him as much as I dislike Rumsfeld today, but the movie, in a way, is all about hindsight, and MacNamara is quick to point out that he understands his mistakes in full. He doesn't apologize for them, necessarily, but it turns out that he doesn't really need to.
I highly recommend it.
Yeah, I saw it at the NYFF. I got some good pics of Morris afterward.
http://movienavigator.org/day8.htm
Awesome, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who's seen it:
http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4121
I still can't get over those LBJ tapes.
Cool tidbit: I have a friend who works often for Morris and was on that movie. He got a neat little movie prop/memento for our apartment. On the bookshelf in the living room are a couple of the over-sized dominoes that fall (including the final one that lands w/ a thud-- he specifically made sure to get that one).
I can't wait for this! Morris rules!
I'm sure it'll never come to a theatre in my town, though, so I'll likely have to wait for the DVD.
Maybe it'll come in a groovy DVD box set along with the long-awaited DVD versions of Gates of Heaven; Vernon, Florida; and The Thin Blue Line.
Mag--
You might get to see it. It's going to open wide at the very end of the year/beginning of next. Supposedly, it's going to be the widest release ever for a Morris movie, and Sony's going to really push to get him the Oscar.
Last I heard, IFC picked up the rights to VF, GoH, and TBL. I believe they're planning a dvd release some time down the road.
Quote from: Weak2ndActMag--
You might get to see it. It's going to open wide at the very end of the year/beginning of next. Supposedly, it's going to be the widest release ever for a Morris movie, and Sony's going to really push to get him the Oscar.
Last I heard, IFC picked up the rights to VF, GoH, and TBL. I believe they're planning a dvd release some time down the road.
Great news on both counts! It would be great to see Morris get an Oscar.
I'd love to see some great special editions on those DVDs (can we dream of commentaries?), but I would definitely just settle for remastered transfers and being able to upgrade from my VHS copies.
Should be interesting if Sony pulls off the Oscar win. I think the Academy has had something against Morris in the past. But this year his film is very socially conscious and the liberals could use the film to make a statement.
MGM's catalog dump .... on July 26 are the Errol Morris documentaries Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, and Vernon Florida, while Errol Morris: First Person: The Complete Series will arrive on the same day, as will an Errol Morris DVD Collection.
YES!!!!!
Drooling.........
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Did this sets just come out or are they coming out soon?
They're all out on July 26. Both box sets, and standalone discs of the documentaries.
Wow, that's great. I need to watch more Errol Morris.
Quote from: Find Your MagaliThey're all out on July 26. Both box sets, and standalone discs of the documentaries.
I'm an idiot, I think I completely overlooked the post before the pictures...
I'm very excited.
In bad news, however, it's starting to look like there will be no extras on any of the older documentaries (Gates of Heaven; Vernon, Florida; Thin Blue Line).
"That's crap," I say!
I have good VHS copies of those three absolute gems, so I might just stick with those, and spend my pennies on the "First Person" set, which I've never seen.
A Brief History of Errol
The man responsible for The Errol Morris DVD Collection likes nothing more than to curl up in bed with a good DVD, preferably one from Renoir or Wilder. By Ian Spelling, FilmStew.com
It probably takes, Errol Morris admits, a special kind of person both to give and to receive The Errol Morris DVD Collection as a gift.. After all, a set containing The Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida isn't exactly comparable to, say, The Muppet Show: Season One set, or The O.C.: Complete Second Season set, or even The Complete Thin Man Collection.
"They don't really say [during] which holiday you're supposed to give or get the set," Morris says with a laugh. "I'm probably in the worst position to judge anything. I made these films usually under duress of one sort or another, and at the time I made them I was just thankful that I was able to finish them and move on to something else."
"But after a certain point you find that, like some kind of mollusk, you leave this trail behind you, this evidentiary trail," he adds. "And I guess this collector's set is my trail of filmmaking." FilmStew decided to happily pick up this trail and pose our "Collector's Corner" questions to this esteemed 57-year-old dean of American documentary filmmaking.
Q: Seriously, it's got to be interesting to have your films out there in a package. It marks a period of your career, right?
A: I'm very curious to see how these will do, to see how much interest there is in this set, because I seem to have this career that's parceled out into various pigeonholes. Most people who know that I do movies have no knowledge of the fact that I direct commercials, and vice versa.
Someone came up to me in L.A. not so long ago and said, 'Mr.. Morris, I really, really admire your work.' I said, 'Thank you so much.' And then they said, 'Those Miller High Life commercials are fantastic.' Even with the movies, there are fans of Fast, Cheap and Out of Control who make no connection with A Brief History of Time or The Thin Blue Line or these earlier films. The movies have been very diverse in character, I believe, and I'm probably the worst person to judge.
But I like the fact that maybe somehow, with this DVD set, it's the very, very first time it can be seen as a body of work. And the TV series [First Person], which was something I was really proud of, has been seen by so few people. So I hope the collection [which includes the "Mr. Personality" segment of First Person] helps make the show available to a wider audience.
Q: What was the first DVD you remember buying and how many do you own now?
A: I own hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. I'm not sure, to tell you the truth, which one I bought first. But I love DVDs. Actually a while back now I said, 'Don't see my movies in theaters. See them on DVD.'
You're not supposed to say that. I also do other things you're not supposed to do. I like looking at movies on my laptop. I'll sit and watch them in bed, and I'm actually holding the movie. There's something gratifying about being able to hold the movie you're watching.
Q: What's not out yet that you're itching to snag for you collection?
A: I love so many different movies that it's frustrating to see how long it takes [for them] to actually make their way to DVD, but it's happening, whether it's Renoir or Billy Wilder. Why isn't Ace in the Hole on DVD? How dare they!
But they put out the Marcel Carne-Jacque Prevert combination, a really beautiful version of Port of Shadows. Yes, I'm a fan of Criterion DVDs. It's actually a wonderful thing. People may decry the death of the movie theater, but the movie theater seems to be struggling just fine. And I still see movies in theaters. But DVD is great. It's absolutely fabulous. And when they have 10,000 more films on DVD I'll be even happier.
Q: What was the last DVD you watched, and what did you make of it?
A: I just watched Clash by Night. Maybe I was lucky; I've seen a fair number of Fritz Lang Hollywood efforts, and in Hollywood he made some of the truly greatest movies ever. This was not one of them. It's an odd one, not one of my favorites by any means.
Q: What kind of viewing environment do you have at home?
A: I've just got a TV set, a monitor. I'm not one of those people that has some kind of a fancy rig. If I can see the movie and I'm enjoy the movie I'm quite delighted.
Q: As someone who's involved behind the scenes, what elements of a film/show -editing, sound, effect, makeup - do you feel translate best on DVD?
A: It's different, it's just clearly different. There are people who are sticklers, who don't want to know the ends of movies, who don't like to have movies stopped and started. They like to see a movie in that traditional way of, you walk into a darkened room, the credits come up and they stay until the bitter end.
I like to look at things again and again. I have this view that there are no great movies; there are just great scenes in movies. I like looking into film in a way you can't possibly in a theater, and that's what you can do with DVD. It's not a better or worse kind of thing. I'm not making a value judgment that one way of seeing a movie is better than the other or vice versa. The ability to stop, start, go back and look at things repeatedly, I love that.
Q: Who or what - on set conversations, critics, colleague recommendations, store clerks - influences your decision to buy non-mainstream DVD titles?
A: It's usually me and movies I'm interested in. I don't have an oracle that I consult.
What else is not out yet on DVD that you wish were OR what's out on DVD that you don't have yet that you're itching to get?
A: Would I be pleased if the entire oeuvre of Renoir was available on DVD? Yes, I would. Would I like to see all of Billy Wilder's films on DVD? Yes, I would. There's much, much more material available than is currently out there. As a person who's interested in the history of film there are thousands of titles.
Q: Documentaries, although currently enjoying a renaissance, can be a hard sell. What, if anything, would help DVDs of documentaries sell better?
A: This whole idea that you have to have all these extras on a DVD, I find the extras usually less interesting. Maybe they are valuable to a lot of people, but I very rarely look at them. I always wish they had the script added to the movie, so that you could index the movie to the script.
There's a tool on AVID now where you can look at what you're working on and see the script indexed to it. But I've never been that excited about extras, to tell you the truth.
Q: What else are you working on at the moment?
A: It's very weird. I was just commenting on this. 'Am I still a filmmaker? What the hell am I?' I do commercials constantly. I'm in demand for them, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because it means I can make a lot of money and I'm employed, and it's a bad thing because I've been trying to do a lot of dramatic features, and just making that move from whatever I do to something else has been time-consuming.
At least I've been writing a lot. You can get updates about what I'm working on at my website ErrolMorris.com. But I'll get around to making dramatic films [Morris' one and only dramatic feature, 1991's The Dark Wind, never received a theatrical release).
I will get around to making more movies. One of them I hope to get around to in the fall. So there you go.
Abu Ghraib movie planned
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Oscar-winning documentary veteran Errol Morris is developing a documentary about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.
The film will examine the infamous abuse and torture of inmates held as suspected terrorists in the Iraqi prison located 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of Baghdad. The scandal was revealed in 2004 when photos of inmates being tortured were published around the world.
It will be backed by Sony Pictures Classics, which released his last film, the Oscar-winning 2003 documentary "The Fog of War," and by Participant Prods., the socially conscious financier of the hit documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" as well as "The World According to Sesame Street."
Participant's executive vp documentary production Diane Weyermann announced the project during a seminar Sunday at the American Film Market in Santa Monica. Sony Classics officials declined comment.
I don't know why I've never seen a errol morris film before but I put in a film last night that I bought a while back called "The Thin Blue Line" and I was blown away by the whole mystery aspect. I found it extremely fascinating. It was a real whodunit that had me freaked out during the rest of the night. Everyone in this film sincerely creeped me out and I can't get some of the images out of my brain.
Errol Morris tries icy tale
Documentarian to direct Cryonics Project
Source: Variety
Documentarian Errol Morris is taking on a narrative feature for his next project.
The "Fog of War" helmer will direct the Untitled Cryonics Project, which Zach Helm is writing.
Mandate Pictures and Steve Zaillian's Film Rites are producing the dark comedy, which was inspired by both Robert F. Nelson's memoir "We Froze the First Man" and a story that aired on NPR's "This American Life" this week titled "You're as Cold as Ice."
True story centers on Nelson, a TV repairman who in the 1960s joined a group of enthusiasts who believed they could cheat death with a new technology: cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists could reanimate them in the future turned out to be harder than Nelson thought.
"This American Life's" Ira Glass and Alissa Shipp are producing alongside Zaillian.
Gang of Two's Jim Garavente and Helm exec produce alongside Mandate prexy Nathan Kahane. Film Rites' Garrett Basch brought in the project and will co-produce with Mandate's Tendo Nagenda.
Film Rites, which is a co-venture with Mandate, has a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Mandate Intl. will handle foreign sales on the film.
Morris, whose documentary credits include "A Brief History of Time" and "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control," most recently produced and directed "Standard Operating Procedure."
Helm, whose Gang of Two shingle has a first-look deal with Mandate, is the author of "Stranger Than Fiction" and "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," both of which he adapted for the bigscreen. The latter also marked Helm's directorial debut.
'Mr. Death, he Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr.' is a stark doc on a man who engineers execution chairs. It really can't get better than this when it comes to documentaries. Fred is such a strait forward and persise individual that the whole film becomes creepier and creepier as it goes on. He doesn't seem very lomesome but not a hardcore social animal either. You can understand why this man probably had trouble meeting women. What a film.
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http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/01/25/lol-harvey-weinstein-suggests-appropriate-pr-tactics-to-errol-morris/
Haha, that's awesome. He is right though.
Whaaa??? Why is this new again? We've had that for years.
http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=5944.0
I want your search power.
I WANT IT.
No search necessary. Just encyclopedic Xixaxian knowledge.
This is a great thread. I just finished watching The Thin Blue Line for the third time. It is simply the best documentary ever. It's one of those movies that you can't help but find new information in upon each viewing. It has always baffled me from the start, but it portrays the events in such a cold and calculated way that the truth about what happened can't help but make perfect sense in the end. Then again, I guess that depends on how and how many times you watch it. Such a monumental achievement in filmmaking, I tip my hat to Errol Morris. I can't believe I haven't known about Gates of Heaven until today.
Errol Morris Tapped To Helm 'Holland, Michigan' – And It's Not A Documentary
BY THE DEADLINE TEAM
Errol Morris made his bones as a feature documentary director and won the 2003 Oscar for The Fog Of War about Robert McNamara. Now he has come aboard Le Grisbi Productions' Holland, Michigan, a suburban thriller laced with black humor based on a script by first-timer Andrew Sodroski. Le Grisbi's John Lesher and Adam Kassan are producing, and they're aiming for a spring 2014 start date. Sean Murphy brought the project into the company and will be co-producer.
Morris' docu credits include The Thin Blue Line and Tabloid, and he serves as executive producer with Werner Herzog on the Indonesia-set documentary The Act Of Killing, the buzzed fest title that Drafthouse Films opens in the U.S. on July 19. Morris latest docu, The Unknown Known: The Words Of Donald Rumsfeld, is in postproduction after TWC-Radius acquired it in Toronto last fall. Morris, repped by WME, only has a couple of narrative features under his belt, including the 1991 mystery The Dark Wind. He is currently also attached to the narrative feature Freezing People Is Easy, the Zach Helm-scripted pic that has Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken involved in a story about the early history of cryogenics.
Sodroski, a Boston native and Medieval History major from Harvard, got his MFA in screenwriting at Columbia and currently lives in Kosovo. He is repped by CAA, Principato-Young and Myman Greenspan.
Lesher's Le Grisbi is in preproduction on David Ayer's World War II tank drama Fury starring Brad Pitt and recently wrapped Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman. He also produced Blood Ties, Guillaume Canet's English-language debut starring Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis and James Caan. Lionsgate picked up U.S. rights during this year's Cannes.
Toronto: Naomi Watts To Star In Errol Morris-Helmed 'Holland, Michigan'
via Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Naomi Watts is in talks to star in Holland, Michigan, a thriller that will be directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris from a script by first time screenwriter Andrew Sodroski. The script is described as a suburban thriller with pitch black humor. Le Grisbi Productions' John Lesher and Adam Kassan are producing and Sean Murphy will be co-producer. Production will start in April.
Watts will be seen next as Princess Diana in the Oliver Hirschbiegel-directed biopic Diana. She just wrapped the Ted Melfi-directed St. Vincent De Van Nuys with Bill Murray and the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Birdman, the latter of which Lesher produced.
Morris is at Toronto to unveil his latest documentary, The Unknown Known and his past work includes The Thin Blue Line, Tabloid and the Oscar-winning The Fog Of War: Eleven Lessons From The Life Of Robert S. McNamara. Morris served as executive producer on Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Act Of Killing.
Lesher is currently in pre-production on the David Ayer-helmed WWII film Fury with Brad Pitt. He produced Blood Ties, Guillaume Canet's English language debut which premiered at Cannes, and was acquired by Lionsgate. Watts is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
Errol Morris Is Making A True-Crime Documentary Series For Netflix (http://truecrime.io9.com/errol-morris-is-making-a-true-crime-documentary-series-1692705397)
Errol Morris to Direct Photo Journalist Biopic 'Weegee'
via The Hollywood Reporter
Oscar winner Errol Morris will direct biopic Weegee, the story of photojournalist Arthur Fellig.
Self-named Weegee the Famous, Fellig was a street photographer who began working in 1930s New York chasing police cars and ambulances to capture life and death in the city. His work appeared in Vogue and Life, among other newspapers and magazines.
Emmy winner Lawrence Schiller (The Man Who Skied Down Everest) will produce Weegee via his WS Productions banner.
"Weegee may not have singlehandedly invented the noir sensibility, but without him, noir would be unimaginable," said Morris. "He recognized he was constructing his own vision of reality, replete with vivid characters — rich, poor, depraved and otherwise."
Schiller added: "Errol and I have wanted to make a film together for many years, and the connections between Weegee's own obsession in documenting antisocial behavior and our own proved to be the connection we were waiting for."
did we (and the world) collectively skip his Bannon doc?
Quote from: wilder on January 22, 2019, 07:56:24 PM
Oscar winner Errol Morris will direct biopic Weegee, the story of photojournalist Arthur Fellig.
I will be looking forward to this. I saw an exhibit of Weegee's work at MOCA a few years ago that I really enjoyed. Morris seems the obvious choice for a doc like this.