Welcome back to A History of Film Festivals in 100 Movies - This is Episode 7.
The Thin Blue Line - by Errol Morris, and the Hot Docs Film Festival - which runs April 25 - May 5th in 2024.
One of the most influential documentaries ever made, The Thin Blue Line ranks on virtually all the documentary lists. And placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest and most important documentary festival in North America, though they are about to face a great challenge as festivals evolve in this new era of exhibition.
Errol Morris was born on February 5, 1948, into a Jewish family in Hewlett, New York. His father passed away when he was two and he was raised by his mother, a piano teacher.
In the 10th grade, Morris attended a boarding school in Vermont. He began playing the cello, spending a summer in France studying music under the acclaimed Nadia Boulanger, who also taught Morris's future collaborator Philip Glass.
Morris attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in history.
Having unsuccessfully approached both Oxford and Harvard, Morris was able to talk his way into Princeton University, where he began studying the history of science, a topic in which he had virtually no background.
Morris left Princeton in 1972, enrolling at Berkeley as a doctoral student in philosophy. At Berkeley, he once again found that he was not well-suited to his subject.
After leaving UC Berkeley, he became a regular at the Pacific Film Archive, which was led by Tom Luddy at the time (who would later become a co-founder of the Telluride FF).
Inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho, Morris visited Plainfield, Wisconsin in 1975, where he conducted multiple interviews with Ed Gein, the infamous bodysnatcher who resided at Mendota State Hospital in Madison.
He then made plans with German film 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. Herzog arrived on schedule, but Morris was a no show. Herzog didn’t open the grave.
Morris accepted $2,000 from Herzog and used it to take a trip to Vernon, Florida and explored the idiosyncrasies of the town's residents for a potential film project.
After spending two weeks in Vernon, Morris returned to Berkeley and eventually happened upon a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that read, "450 Dead Pets Going to Napa Valley." Morris left for Napa Valley and began working on the film that would become his first feature, Gates of Heaven.
A documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.
Gates of Heaven was given a limited release in the spring of 1981. Critic Roger Ebert was and remained a champion of the film, including it on his all-time top-10 best films list.
Though the film didn’t do very well, it impressed his friend Warner Herzog that he even finished it. Herzog had previously said he would eat his shoe if Morris completed the documentary. After the film premiered, Herzog publicly followed through on the bet by cooking and eating his shoe, which was documented in the short film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe by Les Blank. The short documents Herzog's strongly expressed a belief that people need to have the guts to attempt what they dream of.
Morris returned to Vernon in 1979 and again in 1980, renting a house in town and conducting interviews with the town's citizens. Vernon, Florida premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival. Newsweek called it, "a film as odd and mysterious as its subjects, and quite unforgettable." The film, like Gates of Heaven, suffered from poor distribution. It was released on video in 1987.
In 1984, Morris married Julia Sheehan, whom he had met in Wisconsin while researching Ed Gein and other serial killers. He 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 saying "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."
The Thin Blue Line
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. Grigson had spent 15 years testifying for such cases, often saying that it is "one hundred percent certain" that the defendant would kill again. This led to Grigson being nicknamed "Dr. Death.”
Through Grigson, Morris met the subject of his next film, 36-year-old Randall Dale Adams, who 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's innocence. After reviewing the transcripts of the trial and meeting David Harris at a bar, Morris was no longer certain.
At this time, Morris had been making a living as a private investigator for a well-known private detective agency. Bringing together his talents as an investigator and his obsessions with murder and narration, Morris went to work. Unedited interviews in which the prosecution's witnesses systematically contradicted themselves were used as testimony in Adams's 1986 habeas corpus hearing to determine if he would receive a new trial. David Harris famously confessed 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 said, "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's film would be called, was popularly accepted as the main force behind getting its subject, Randall Adams, out of prison.
According to Morris, "The Thin Blue Line is two movies grafted together. On one simple level is the question, Did he do it, or didn't he? And on another level, The Thin Blue Line, properly considered, is an essay on false history. A whole group of people, literally everyone, believed a version of the world that was entirely wrong, and my accidental investigation of the story provided a different version of what happened."
The Thin Blue Line grossed $1,209,846 in the US and Canada. On its opening weekend, in only one theatre, it took in $17,814. Although the film is the 95th highest grossing documentary film released since 1982, Morris says he lost money on the production.
Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, and said that Morris' visual style in The Thin Blue Line is unlike any conventional documentary approach.
Gene Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, named it the 7th best film of 1988. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to consider it for Best Documentary because of its use of reenactments. The film was nominated for many smaller awards, winning some (source below Wikipedia).
A special edition Blu-ray of the film was released in North America by the Criterion Collection in March 2015. New features include interviews with Morris and filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, a filmmaker he would work with down the road, for the controversial The Act of Killing.
In 2001, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
A Brief History in Time (1991)
Morris wanted to make a film about what happened to Albert Einstein's brain and approached Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment about the idea. Gordon Freeman had acquired the rights to Stephen Hawking's bestseller A Brief History of Time and Spielberg suggested Morris direct it. After reading Hawking's book, Morris agreed to direct a documentary adaptation of it, as he had studied the philosophy of science at Princeton. Morris's film A Brief History of Time is less an adaptation of Hawking's book than a portrait of the scientist. It combines interviews with Hawking, his colleagues and his family with computer animations.
Soon after completing this movie, Hot Docs was taking shape in Canada.
Hot Docs Launched in 1993
Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organization of Canada, previously known as the Canadian Independent Film Caucus. The DOC is a national association of independent filmmakers. Paul Jay, then chair of the CIFC, was the founding board chairperson and Debbie Nightingale was the event producer. The first event was held on February 24 to 27, 1994, including the first industry conference and the National Documentary Film Awards.
20 films of the line-up were screened at the Jackman Hall auditorium and the NFB screening room.
In 1995, the festival grew to 29 films and included Steve James’s Hoop Dreams.
In 1996, Hot Docs separated from the DOC to become an individual entity with a mandate to showcase and support the work of Canadian and international documentary filmmakers and to promote excellence in documentary production. That year's edition had 52 films in the line-up.
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997)
The following year, in 1997 Morris completed Fast, Cheap and Out of Control . The film profiles four subjects with extraordinary careers: Dave Hoover, a wild-animal tamer; George Mendonça, a topiary gardener at Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Ray Mendez, an expert on naked mole-rats who has designed an exhibit on the animals for the Philadelphia Zoo; and Rodney Brooks, an MIT scientist who works in robotics. In the interviews with the men, which act as the guiding narration for the film, they discuss their personal lives, what led them to their professions, what challenges they face in their work, and their thoughts about what they see in the future for their careers, their fields, and the world.
After using the first moments in the film to establish the characters one by one with film clips that correspond to each subject, Morris mixes footage related to one subject with the narration of another in order to connect themes shared by his characters.
The film received positive reviews from critics including Roger Ebert and A. O. Scott. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a rating of 91%. Several critics called it one of the best films of 1997. Ebert suggested that Errol Morris has long since moved out of the field of traditional documentary.
The Festival Introduces the Hot Docs Forum
Back in Canada, Hot Docs initiated the Hot Docs Forum in 2000 and has established itself as North America's essential international documentary market event. Taking place over two days, the forum sees pre-selected international projects present to a round-table of leading international commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives, and delegates.
Pitch prizes are also awarded during the Forum, including the Corus-Hot Docs Forum pitch prize, awarding a $10,000 cash prize to be used by the winning team for the production and completion budget for their project; the Cuban Hat Award, providing "real cash, no strings attached" money raised during the Hot Docs Forum; and first look Pitch Prizes as part of a curated access program for philanthropic supporters of and investors in documentary film.
Notable Hot Docs Forum participants include Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions, Ari Folman's Golden Globe-winning Waltz with Bashir, Cari Green and Mark Achbar's The Corporation, David France's How to Survive a Plague, Frederick Wiseman's In Jackson Heights and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's Academy Award-winning Inocente.
By this time, the entire festival had become more structured.
Official selections were divided into sections or programs. Recurring programs include:
Canadian Spectrum – A competitive program of Canadian stories and perspectives
International Spectrum – A competitive program of world and international premieres
Artscapes – A showcase for the arts, creativity, music and pop culture
Big Ideas – Screenings of films with thought-provoking issues, followed by an extended discussion with notable guest subjects and experts
DocX – An interdisciplinary program celebrating works outside the traditional format
Focus On – An annual showcase of the work of a Canadian filmmaker
Made In – A selection of films celebrating a selected country or region
Nightvision – A showcase of future cult classics and diverse approaches to filmmaking
Outstanding Achievement Award Retrospective – Celebrating the work of a distinguished filmmaker
Redux – A retrospective program, occasionally focused on a theme
Special Presentations – Award-winning films, celebrated filmmakers, high-profile subjects and special screenings
World Showcase – A popular global selection of docs
Incubator – A program to ignite developing doc projects with creative and market potential.
Additionally, each festival includes two to three theme programs that showcase documentaries united by a topic, subject, or issue.
The Interrotron and The Fog of War (2003)
In 2003, Morris created a device he would need for his next project. Morris feels his interviewing of subjects, has been greatly enhanced in his later work, by devising the Interrotron (terror and interview). It's two cameras, one on Morris and one on the interviewee. Each sees the other's images staring directly into the lens, to give the audience the appearance the subject is talking directly to them.
That next project would be the Fog of War
The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara. Over the course of the documentary, Morris distills McNamara's philosophy of war into eleven basic tenets:
The film was screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature of 2003.
Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award Goes to Errol Morris
Each year, the Hot Docs Board of Directors celebrates a distinguished filmmaker and their career with the Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award.
Errol Morris was the recipient of Hot Docs’ annual Outstanding Achievement Award in 2005, an accolade which also featured a retrospective titled “In Search of Individuality: Charm and Eccentricity in the World of Errol Morris”. As part of the retrospective, the Festival played The Thin Blue Line.
Interestingly, the Festival would also present Grizzly Man, the latest work from Morris's friend and comrade, Werner Herzog.
It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast and conservationist Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard at Katmai National Park, Alaska. Treadwell and Huguenard, both from New York, had bonded over their common passion for bears and animal conservation, and she would occasionally accompany him on his trips to the park. Having stayed past the summer season one year, the pair were attacked and killed in the park by a bear on October 5, 2003. The couple's remains were discovered by a patrolling pilot, and an audio recording of the attack was found among the remains; the bear was later encountered and killed by the pilot's rescue team.
This film is now considered one of the best documentaries ever made.
The 2006 festival marked the start of the Docs For Schools outreach program, screening documentaries to an estimated 7,000 students. They were inspired to create such a program, believing that knowledge is power!
In 2008, Morris would direct Standard Operating Procedure, which would win the Silver Bear in Berlin. He would then do Tabloid in 2010.
The Act of Killing (2012)
In 2012 Morris and Herzog would come aboard a new project as Executive Producers, a film that would take the festival world by storm - The Act of Killing.
A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
Here’s Morris on how he got acquainted with the film:
I’ve known Josh for close to 20 years. I first saw footage from the Act of Killing about four years ago and signed on to become an executive producer. A year and a half ago, I saw several cuts of the film, a 90-minute cut, a two-hour cut, and a two-and-a-half-hour cut. Here’s the amazing part. They were all good. I’m incredibly proud to be associated with this film. Joshua Oppenheimer has done two things. He’s made an important work of art, and he’s made an important social statement. I was interviewed by a journalist from Jakarta, who described the Act of Killing as a gift to the Indonesian people. It is impossible to overstate the significance of what Josh has done.
Here is a great video with interviews of both Errol Morris and Werner Herzog on the subject of the movie.
For its 20th anniversary edition in 2013, Hot Docs screened a record 204 documentaries, after considering over 2300 submissions.
Selections included Sundance winner Blood Brother, The Crash Reel by Lucy Walker, and Audience Award winner Muscle Shoals, a terrific look at the Alabama township where blues artists Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding recorded hits.
Meanwhile, Errol Morris would dabble in TV for a few years before making another wonderful feature documentary in 2016.
Bside - Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography
A profile of celebrated portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman, whose friends and subjects include Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. The film premiered at Telluride and was released by Neon.
Hot Docs 2016
Fresh from Sundance, Ezra Edelman’s five-part, seven-and-a-half-hour ESPN documentary O.J. Made In America became the hottest ticket of Hot Docs 2016. It goes on to win an Oscar for best documentary feature.
By the time you hear this podcast, you will likely know that OJ passed away last week, at the age of 76, after fighting cancer.
Wormwood (2017)
In 2017, Errol would return to crime and partner with Netflix for the series Wormwood, based on the Frank Olson story. Again, mixing real archival footage with scripted reenactments. With 14-15 million to spend, the most he’s ever had.
What was the story of Wormwood?
In 1953, Army scientist Frank Olson takes a fatal plunge from a hotel window. In 1975, a bombshell report ties his death to a top-secret experiment.
More CIA In 2020
Morris would do My Psychedelic Love Story for Showtime.
An examination of the high priest of LSD Timothy Leary through the eyes of famed lover Joanna Harcourt-Smith. Was Leary's "perfect love" a CIA plant or was she simply a rich, beautiful young woman out for the adventure of a lifetime?
Leary was targeted as a criminal, in and out of prison. In 1973, he bounced from Vienna to Beirut to Kabul, all in an attempt to evade the American authorities.
Joining him for this journey of freedom was the much younger girlfriend Joanna Harcourt-Smith (he was 52, she was 27), a Swiss-born British socialite who had devoted herself to Leary.
The Pigeon Tunnel (2023)
Fast forward to 2023, for his latest effort, where Morris pulls back the curtain on the storied life and career of former British spy David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré, author of such classic espionage novels as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Constant Gardener. The film spans six decades as le Carré gives his final and most personal interview, interrupted with rare archival footage and dramatic anecdotes. It is set against the stormy Cold War backdrop that extends into the present day.
Hot Docs 2024
As for Hot Docs, there has been a lot of drama in 2024. About a month before kicking off their event, their Artistic Director resigned, and they lost 10 of their programers. They say they quit the Hot Docs film festival en masse as a result of what they describe as a toxic workplace. In a joint statement released the day the documentary fest announced its 2024 lineup, they say the organization failed to respect protocol and dismissed or diminished team members' voices.
The Festival will still present 168 films and host their traditional programs. The show must go on.
And that is a wrap for this edition of A History of Film Festivals Episode 7: The Thin Blue Line - by Errol Morris, and the Hot Docs Film Festival.
And for our paying subscribers, we’ll be sending you a bonus pod on Errol Morris, shortly, where we share more insights, interviews and clips.
Thanks for listening, and until next time, you take care.
Sources
The Broadcast Bridge - Interrotron
War Trilogy
Hot Docs
Highlights From Werner Herzog, Errol Morris & Joshua Oppenheimer’s Revealing Reddit AMA For ‘The Act of Killing’
Episode 7: The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris