MR. DEATH - Errol Morris and conflicting narratives

You might imagine that students enrolled in a documentary film program sit around all day watching Docs. Well that's not the case at Langara College. Rarely do we view more than ten minute clips of a film. On Thursday for example, we were teased with an extract from MR. DEATH: The Rise And Fall of Fred Leuchter, Jr. , which debuted ten years ago. After a round of pleading the instructor agreed to lend out his pirate copy of the film so that I could stroke one more important film off my "Must See" list. I heartily agree with the classroom endorsement of Director Errol Morris: "He's the best documentarian working today."

DVD cover of the Errol Morris documentary Mr. Death (1999)
It will not shock anyone I think, to learn that illegal copies of movies circulate at film schools. Langara College shelves only legal and licenced copies in its library but instructors, like students, sometimes "share". I own a burned copy of a documentary on Akira Kurosawa, but purchased his films retail. What did amaze me was to discover that MR. DEATH is available for free viewing on the Internet. It's here - GOOGLE VIDEO .

The story is recreation of the life and work of a manufacturer of execution machines, and self-described expert on capital punishment. In the 1980s Fred Leuchter blundered into the treacherous No Man's Land which existed between the Holocaust denial crowd and a militant fringe of the Anti-war Movement. Vanity lead him to except a research assignment offered in 1988 by notorious Torontonian - Ernst Zundel. Leuchter was to go to Poland and find evidence to refute the fact that the Nazi concentration camps were ever used to exterminate inmates. Leuchter had professed to being a licenced engineer in Massachusetts, but in fact his degree was in History. Leuchter filmed his sample collecting expedition and produced a very flawed "Report". The result? Lawyers squashed him like a bug, but this film lets him tell his own story.

I had heard of the infamous "Leuchter Report", but never found it of interest because I have my own research collection... bound transcripts of Nazi war crimes trials, copies of Nazi blueprints for death camps, etc, etc.

This film simply could not have been produced by ANY Canadian film director. I think we owe Errol Morris our praise for clarifying one aspect of a legal-political controversy which unfolded in Toronto, but which resonated from Moncton to Victoria, and which few Canadians ever truly understood. Certainly books exist which pretend to "reveal" the truth of what was was going on here at the time. (Warren Kinsella's WEB OF HATE comes to mind.) But Kinsella's writing is all political puke and clumsy selective evidence. Errol Morris shows us another way... with passion, art and honesty MR. DEATH shows us some of what happened and he makes no attempt to editorialize.
I recently read Professor Bill Nichols' book REPRESENTING REALITY : Issues and Concepts in Documentary, which was published in 1991 and thus predates the production of MR. DEATH. We are told that Errol Morris, in his work, "emerges less as stalwart defender of the innocent than as ironic observer of how facts become woven into disparate and conflicting narratives." That assessment continues to ring true. See this film and wonder at his craft.

2009 - S.F.U. Graduation Screening

Simon Fraser University has one of the more frenetic film schools in B.C., and in January 2010 a legion of very lucky novice filmmakers will move into the new SFU production facility in downtown Vancouver. On Thursday (May 30th) I had the pleasure of attending the "31st Annual" SFU Grad screening, which showcased the creative talent of the last crop of students to use the old gear on the SFU Burnaby Mountain campus. The evening offered an entertaining melody of 19 mini-movies which in turn charmed, dazzled and sometimes bemused. SFU Film Instructor Colin Browne admitted up front that they're not exactly sure this was the "31st annual screening" (the department flew by the seat of its pants in the late '70s), but they're pretty sure.

My ticket came courtesy of my son, a third year film student who worked on four of the films - as sound designer, grip/dolly grip, a cast member or as sound recordist. I enjoyed every film, but I wouldn't be human if I didn't compare and sort my viewing into mental folders. That's part of the fun.

CATECHISM, by Jessica Moorhouse, was an obvious crowd-pleaser. It is the story of a young lass who struggles to reconcile her carnal urges with the dictates her "Catholic" upbringing. (The Ten Commandants are reduced to four ... it's a West Coast thing.) While I was a tad bemused by the mixing of the Catholic confessional with frequent dissolves into a Baptist-style angst over "what the Bible sez", I found CATECHISM a genuine laugh fest. The entire audience loved Jessica's casting of a Bobble-Head Jesus.

SQUADRON 5 was a brave attempt at a Science Fiction epic, and the hard work of Director Barry Liu shows throughout. Squadron 5 was also the only story film not produced in English. It was my first exposure to a Cantonese S.F. movie (with English subtitles) and it is evidence of the multicultural flavour of the Simon Fraser campus, although not enough Chinese youths choose film making. Mr. Google tells me that Al Leung, one of the actors featured in SQUADRON 5, has a webpage.
BOXED IN could have been produced by American International Pictures in the 1970's. Instead the splatter-comedy script had to wait for Kial Natale to be born and to choose film school. The movie a real hoot and the audience loved it. I don't know if the old guy who played Santa Claus was a professional actor or a talented rubby-dub the Director found on Hastings Street, but he was sure fun to watch.
A perky one minute trailer for the 2009 SFU Graduate Film was posted, and I noticed it has been re-cut. It's here : http://www.sfufilm.ca/4thyear/ There can be no doubt that some of these wonderful films will be entered in festivals later this year, and I hope they attract a wider audience.