DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW
Errol Morris
Every Monday, journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.
Why can't they just leave Errol Morris alone? I know I'm coming a little late to the conversation, but the guy makes the most sensitive, humanizing films that try to bridge our understanding of human frailty, oddity, evil and injustice. One of his films even got a guy off of death row. And he has masterful control of the camera: his cinematography (one of his current co-directors of photography is Robert Richardson, who also shoots for the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone) is exquisite. But, still, they treat him like an arrogant, misguided 5th grader playing in the high school gym.
I recently went to see Standard Operating Procedure, and walked out of the theater in a daze. The movie is a masterful concoction of searing, insightful interviews with the American soldiers responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, along with well-produced, sophisticated re-enactments of some of the incidents. There are exploding helicopters (culled from a scene from the big-budget Charlie's Angels), computer-generated renderings of ghost-like interrogators, and re-enacted scenes of torture. I was struck by how Morris rips through all the black-and-white newsprint we've read about that notorious prison, and makes it all feel so visceral. I could almost breathe in the conditions both the soldiers and their detainees were in. It felt like a real horror show, like a ghostly torture chamber rendered by M. Night Shyamalan and, maybe even torture-porn provocateur Eli Roth. Which is to say, it made me feel sick. Which is also to say, that it is an amazing accomplishment.
Morris reveals the truth in ways no other filmmaker can. But he is still shunned by so many. When I stood outside the theater, a man asked me, "What did you think?" I knew it was a loaded question. I told him I was moved, and asked him what he thought. "Well, let's just say I'm more from the Maysles school of documentary filmmaking."
OK, whatever. He's got a right to his opinion. But what irks me is how estimable critics such as J. Hoberman of the Village Voice, Richard Schickel of Time and Variety's Todd McCarthy knock Morris for imbuing the subject matter with too much of his "fancy style." And then there are these recent reports from The New York Times that Morris paid his interview subjects, suggesting this makes them compromised sources.
If only people could sit and watch an Errol Morris film without staid preconceptions about what a documentary should be. Morris, like so many documentary filmmakers who are now following his footsteps, isn't so much making a nonfiction film as he is making a film. His work transcends fiction and nonfiction by weaving the two together. And if that's too confusing for the viewer, then he or she is missing out on something vital in our culture. In the age of double-speak where a president can create tax policies and war strategies based on fictions, or a television show such as The Hills can seduce a generation with its seamless merging of fiction and nonfiction into a tasteless but addictive froth, it's best to develop a medium that can use a similar language — but to do so intelligently and with good conscience. Call it homeopathic filmmaking. Morris is treating like with like, and he should be applauded rather than reviled for it.
This past week was a busy one in the doc world. The Full Frame Documentary Festival took place in North Carolina; Young@Heart, the first documentary acquired by distribution company Fox Searchlight in a decade was released to wide acclaim; and the upcoming release of his Standard Operating Procedure has Errol Morris all over the news.
First, to Full Frame. Our own Yance Ford was in Durham for the festivities, and she filed reports for us on the films she saw and the career award presentation to director William Greaves. Elsewhere, Still in Motion blogger Pamela Cohn offered in-depth re-caps of the festival (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, as did AJ Schnack of All These Wonderful Things, who, in addition to writing about the films, offered photos from the festival. Chuck Tryon of the Chutry Experiment was at Full Frame too, and he offers long, thoughtful reviews of many of the films he saw, including Bigger, Stronger, Faster, American Teen, At the Death House Door, and Trouble the Water. Overall, the Full Frame Festival wrapped up another successful year, its first without founder Nancy Buirski at the helm. The big award winners of the festival were Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Hurricane Katrina film Trouble the Water, and James Marh's Man on Wire, about a man who tightrope walked between the Twin Towers in 1974.
Our own Doc Soup columnist Tom Roston called Stephen Walker's Young@Heart "the tear jerker of 2008!" The film, which chronicles a senior citizen choir that sings music originally performed by the likes of Sonic Youth, Coldplay and The Clash, opened this week, and many critics were just as smitten as Tom was. The Los Angeles Times says that to see "these men and women having the time of their lives near the end of their lives couldn't be more refreshing." And although indieWire takes issue with the frequently "ingratiating" filmmaking, it points out that "what's good about the film comes through in spite of the filmmaking." The New York Times devotes a review and an article to the film in the same week, with the former lauding the film for offering "...an encouraging vision of old age in which the depression commonly associated with decrepitude is held at bay by music making, camaraderie and a sense of humor." The article, on the other hand, reports on sitting down to tea with the octogenarian singers, who are described as having "irrepressible goofiness," and who manage to "negotiate the sometimes barren landscape of old age with consummate grace."
Finally, seminal documentarian Errol Morris has been all over the internet. As his film about Abu Ghraib and photography, Standard Operating Procedure, gets ready for its limited release on April 25th, Morris is set to make appearances at Apple stores in San Francisco and New York. The Believer also published a conversation between Werner Herzog and Morris in the March/April edition of the magazine; the two masters talk about cinema verité, when they first met and took a trip to visit a serial killer in prison, and how to capture spontaneity on film. In consideration of Morris and his filmmaking techniques, Slate offers a lengthy article on his use of superslow motion in Standard Operating Procedure, and ArtForum offers an article criticizing the film's lack of insightful political discourse. Morris himself, meanwhile, considers the technique of re-enactments in his blog for the New York Times: specifically, he writes about his use of re-enactments in The Thin Blue Line, and considers the controversy around re-enactments in documentary films overall. Finally, for those who can't get enough of Errol Morris, word comes from The Hollywood Reporter (via Spout Blog) that his next project will be a fictional film: a comedy he is writing titled The End of Everything.
Every Monday, journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the state of the documentary world in his column, Tom Roston's Doc Soup.
The hot theatrical doc season begins! The month of April sees two much-anticipated documentaries being released, Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure (on April 25) and Morgan Spurlock's Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (on April 18). Although both of these are from A-list filmmakers, these two documentaries have a lot stacked against them — both have been getting mixed reviews (although Morris won the top prize at the Berlin film festival), and their subject matters are pretty challenging for different reasons.
In his film, Morris casts his brilliant, quirky and often sobering eye on the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. But with a couple of docs out recently on related subjects (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and Taxi to the Dark Side) and with a slew of features about the Iraq War having tanked at the box office (the recent Stop-Loss was relentlessly sold to a young audience by its production company, MTV — to no avail), I don't see Morris's latest effort as contributing to his recent growth in popularity — his last film, 2003's Fog of War, not only won him his first Oscar, but made more money ($5 million) than all of his previous films combined. But does Morris care if he wins a popularity award? Actually, sometimes I think he does.
Now, I know Spurlock cares about his popularity — he is an unabashed filmmaker for the people, and he is really swinging for the fences on this one. His movie is a clear attempt to appeal to young audiences. It's got a nine-foot, animated ninja-fighting Osama Bin Laden flying around the world in no-holds-barred video-game style. But will audiences over 30 years of age get the joke? And if they don't, will kids want to see that weird guy with funny facial hair tromping through Pakistan? It's a tough call. But I have to reserve judgment at this point because distributor The Weinstein Company tells me that the version of the film that I saw at Sundance has changed — I'll be watching the altered version tonight. I'll make sure to let you know if the changes are significant.
But maybe the hottest April doc of all will be coming from a little known British television documentarian named Stephen Walker. His Young@Heart rolls out this Wednesday, and distributor Fox Searchlight has high hopes that it could break through the traditional box office ceiling for docs. I'm talking in the $10 to $20 million range. That's a bold call, I know, but this is the first documentary on their slate in over ten years, so I'm taking them seriously. Even if $2-$4 million is more realistic, it would still be great to see.
If there were ever a documentary that could win over mass audiences, it's this one. The film is about a senior citizen choir that sings contemporary songs originally performed by the likes of Sonic Youth, Talking Heads. and The Clash. It's a trip watching the octogenerians try to wrestle with the songs, but what I slowly realized as I watched the film is that this is a rare look into the lives of older people. I was also enraptured by the dramatic arc of the film. As I watched one, and then two of the main protagonists pass away during the making of the film, I found myself close to tears. Finally, when a heaving, geriatric man hooked to a respirator beautifully sings the sweet Coldplay song, "Fix You," after a friend passes away, I was over the brink. Young@Heart is the tear-jerker of 2008!
