Errol Morris

Hailed as the philosopher king of American documentary filmmaking, Errol Morris established a distinctive ironic style with Gates of Heaven (1978), a non-fiction film about pet cemeteries. He went on to direct such acclaimed docs as The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Fog of War (2003). “It isn’t the style of how you present truth. It’s the search for it which matters,” says Morris, who employs re-enactments and other drama-related devices. He takes issue with the more doctrinaire proponents of cinéma vérité: “What I don’t like about vérité is this claim that somehow you’re guaranteed truthfulness by virtue of style...That because a film has been made in a certain way— handheld camera, available light, fly on the wall — that somehow it becomes more truthful as a result. I respectfully disagree.”

Selected Filmography

Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
Berlin International Film Festival — Jury Grand Prix, Silver Berlin Bear

Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Academy Award — Best Feature Documentary

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (1999)

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997)
National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics — Best Documentary

A Brief History of Time (1991)
Sundance Film Festival — Grand Jury Prize

The Thin Blue Line (1988)
International Documentary Association — IDA Award

Vernon, Florida (1982)

Gates of Heaven (1978)