Questioning Authority
Documentary filmmaker maverick Errol Morris queries every query as he chats to Ben Kenigsberg
Asking permission to record Errol Morris is an odd question to ask a documentary filmmaker, not least one famous for filming his subjects with "the Interrotron" - a camera rigged so that the subject talks directly to the interviewer's image, projected into a camera.
"I should record this," Morris deadpans. "I like the idea." It's particularly appropriate because the American's latest film, Standard Operating Procedure, is not a conventional exposé but an examination of the famous photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison. In his breakthrough, The Thin Blue Line (1988), Morris used re-enactments to illustrate a murder for which physical evidence no longer existed. Twenty years on, Standard Operating Procedure finds Morris examine a crime, find a wealth of physical evidence, and question it.
"One of many ironies in this story, is there were 13 investigations done into Abu Ghraib...[and] we still don't have a clear idea about the place," Morris says. "The photos may be partially to blame. You think you've seen everything. You don't think about what wasn't photographed."
Morris believes the photos helped George W. Bush win the 2004 election. "Why does everybody in the Arab world hate our guts? Because of the photographs."
The film doesn't aim to be a comprehensive portrait of Abu Ghraib, rather an inquiry into the nature of investigation. Nor does it exonerate the central characters, something Morris was accused of with his Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War (2003), a profile of former US defense secretary Robert McNamara.
Still the fact remains - "these people have been court-martialed, imprisoned, blamed for the failure of the war, vilified in the press.... They know their commanding officers participated in all this and walked away, in most instances uncharged and scot-free."
How did Morris get Lynndie England - of the infamous "leash" photo - and others to trust him with interviews? He dismisses the notion of trust in documentaries. "They had every reason to believe what I was saying, and every reason to distrust me also. Sometimes I am amazed that people talk to me."
Post-interview with Time Out, Morris publically revealed he paid his subjects, which - while ethically dubious - is standard for his films. Since last year, Morris has written a popular New York Times blog whose topics often dovetail with those of the film. "It's a new thing," he jokes. "It's called philosophical marketing."