Filmmakers’ “Theories” – Errol Morris

Errol Morris is an American film director best known for his documentaries including Thin Blue Line (1988) and Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter (1999).

His documentaries are often associated with the Participatory documentary mode due to his involvement and the presences of reconstructions however, reflexive elements as well due to his exploration of historical subjects being joint with exploration of the problems/issues of representing it as well. This can be seen subtly in his documentary Mr Death as he interview Fred Leuchter and therefore gets his side of the story that could be bias.

Morris’s documentaries, including Mr Death, often feature interviews with the subjects. His interviewing technique is unique, he actually invented the machine he uses to conduct them. It is called the Interrotron and it enables Morris and his interviewee to talk through the lens of the camera almost like they are video calling each other so that when the audience watches it appears that the subject is talking straight to the camera answering questions.

“Teleprompters are used to project an image on a two-way mirror. Politicians and newscasters use them so that they can read text and look into the lens of the camera at the same time. What interests me is that nobody thought of using them for anything other than to display text: read a speech or read the news and look into the lens of the camera. I changed that. I put my face on the Teleprompter or, strictly speaking, my live video image. For the first time, I could be talking to someone, and they could be talking to me and at the same time looking directly into the lens of the camera. Now, there was no looking off slightly to the side. No more faux first person. This was the true first person”

– Morris

Morris’s documentaries avoid using an authoritative voice over to give his documentaries an essence of naturalness and cinematic truth; this is called the catalyst style.

He also uses reconstructions alongside his interviews and inserts of archive footage. For example in Mr Death there are various recreations of the equipment invented by Leuchter including an electric chair being used.