On March 5, we lost one of the most important documentary filmmakers of all time.
Albert Maysles, along with his brother David, started a revolution with an interview film of Marlon Brando in 1966.
Then they went even further with films like Salesman (1968), Gimme Shelter (1970) and Grey Gardens (1975), all of which showed us things that we didn’t necessarily want to see.
In the spirit of the Maysles, here are two documentaries that have changed the lives of the people that the movies were about.
They both got the criminal cases that they focused on re-opened
THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988)
Written and directed by Errol Morris
Errol Morris is right up there with the Maysles and DA Pennebaker as an incredibly important filmmaker, and that all began with The Thin Blue Line (not to be confused with the Rowan Atkinson BBC series).
Randall Adams was just a drifter who got picked up by the wrong kid at the wrong time. He and David Harris rode for a little while, even stopping for some food, beer and pot. But the story really starts after Harris dropped Adams off at a motel. That’s when their stories get completely different. Harris says that Adams stayed with him until they were pulled over and Adams shot the police officer. The fact that Harris went on to be thrown in jail for other murders later on had no baring on this case at all.
Adams was picked up by the cops of Dallas County, Texas and thrown in jail with hardly any real trial…or evidence. That is, until The Thin Blue Line came out and showed how flimsy the evidence truly was and how pressured the justice system was to get a conviction. Adams’ case was opened again after the release of the film and the rest, of course, is history.
If you ever wonder where tv shows like CSI come from, look no further than this film. Morris examines every angle of the crime to find out what, exactly, happened and how the “official story” could never have happened. It’s engrossing from beginning to end and, more importantly, helped to free an innocent man.
Morris had already made two great films (Gates Of Heaven and Vernon, Florida), but The Thin Blue Line made him a much more important filmmaker. Films like A Brief History Of Time, Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control and The Fog Of War are milestones in the form. Check them all out if you’ve never seen them.
PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS (1996)
Directed by Joe Berlinger/Bruce Sinofsky
When three children are murdered in a small, backwoods Arkansas town, the entire community immediately blames the three teenage metal fans that everyone hates. These three boys “worshiped Satan” (naturally) and used the children’s bodies in a Satanic rituals. It’s so obvious that these boys did it! (Even though there’s no real evidence at all.)
Berlinger and Sinofsky spent 10 months in Arkansas interviewing people and talking to the three kids in prison. None of it added up for the filmmakers and they made it clear in their film. Then they made two more films in 2000 and 2011.
Eighteen years (!) after they were thrown in jail with bad evidence, the three boys got out of prison through a plea that isn’t very well known. They’re STILL trying to clear their names, with Damien Echols leading the way with his book of his experiences. Not to mention a more recent documentary co-produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (West Of Memphis).
Paradise Lost and all of the later films prove that it sometimes doesn’t pay to be different, especially in a small town. In the south. With idiots all around you. It’s sad, but the world is like that and it’s good to have people like Berlinger and Sinofsky to point it out.
I’ve never seen any of Berlinger and Sinofsky’s other films (including Brother’s Keeper, Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster and….um….Blair Witch 2: Book Of Shadows), but I know that they are just the kind of investigative journalists the documentary form needs. I’m excited to check out some of their other stuff.
Documentaries are meant to show us ourselves in a new light. It seems we sometimes need a reminder of this and I’m always happy that there are some filmmakers out there who are glad to do the job.
