First Person (2000)

Directed by

Errol Morris

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Length

2 seasons, 19 episodes

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris interviews a diverse range of people including criminals and advocates. The series uses a special camera setup that lets subjects maintain eye contact with Morris while speaking directly to the viewer.

intimatecerebralinquisitivemeasuredtalk-heavythoughtfulemotionally neutral

What happens

First Person is an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals, and ran for two seasons, in 2000–2001. Interviews were conducted with "The Interrotron", a device similar to a teleprompter: Errol and his subject each sit facing a camera. The image of each person's face is then projected onto a two-way mirror positioned in front of the lens of the other's camera. Instead of looking at a blank lens, then, both Morris and his subject are looking directly at a human face. (Diagram) Morris believes that the machine encourages monologue in the interview process, while also encouraging the interviewees to "express themselves to camera". The name "Interrotron" was coined by Morris's wife, who, according to Morris, "liked the name because it combined two important concepts — terror and interview." The Interrotron was later used by Morris for his 2003 film The Fog of War. The first episode of the series was dedicated to debtor's advocate Andrew Capoccia, wherein he laid out his philosophy on debt reduction. Less than two days after the episode aired, on February 18, 2000, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Rochester court announced the provisional suspension of all pending cases filed by Andrew Capoccia's firm. Cappocia was subsequently tried, convicted of fraud and imprisoned. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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