"I wasn't retelling a story," Morris says, "I was conducting an investigation. When those eyewitnesses essentially admit perjury, this had never been recorded before; I didn't know what to expect at the beginning of the interview." As a result of this investigation, the falsely accused Randall Adams was subsequently released from prison.

After "The Thin Blue Line" was released, Morris says he was inundated with requests to make movies proving other peoples' innocence. But the director had already worked as a private investigator and had little interest in completing another investigative film. "At the beginning of "The Thin Blue Line," before it even became "The Thin Blue Line," I kept saying thank God I don't have to be an investigator any more. Of course, that proved untrue."

THE FUTURE

Errol Morris' most significant upcoming project is a series for Bravo called "First Person," which is based on the Interrotron. He describes the series, which will ultimately consist of eleven episodes, as "first-person stories, shorter stuff that doesn't fit into an hour and a half." The programs have already aired in the UK, and will begin showing here in February.

Morris also has several films in the works, including a fictional feature. Of the transition from non-fiction work to scripted material, he says "there are certain stories that are best told as non-fiction, and certain stories that are best told as fiction. It's interesting, you know-every feature film is a documentary, a documentary of someone's performance. To me, the most important thing about film is spontaneity, and that applies just as well to feature filmmaking."

Sadly, "Mr. Death" and the Bravo series are the final two projects that will include the music of Caleb Sampson, Morris' longtime collaborator who passed away in 1998. Morris describes Sampson in glowing terms, calling him "immensely talented. I felt that he was growing very much as an artist," he continues. "I looked forward to the collaboration being a lengthy one, so this whole thing has been a shock."

However, audiences can still look forward to his peculiar brand of interviews, which he describes as "the shut-up-and-listen school." He says of this style, "if you go into an interview with some kind of fixed agenda, than you learn nothing. But an interview where you have no idea what you're going to hear... it's just worked well for me over the years and that I will continue to use. An interview is a kind of human relationship in an odd, laboratory setting. I never try to do anything more than simply elicit a story. As an investigative tool, it's far more productive than backing people into a corner."