Morris himself is an odd blend of the visionary and the realistic, maintaining his values and consistently producing excellent work while maintaining a consciousness of the audience's experience. "Of course I worry about whether anyone will ever go to see these things, but I don't make them with that in mind. I read somewhere that some journalist had said that "Fast, Cheap, and out of Control" was some kind of cynical attempt on my part to make a commercial movie. I thought that was really insane. Yes, it's like that commercial formula we're all familiar with-the robot scientist, the topiary gardener, the mole-rat photographer, and the lion tamer."

Today, people are responding to Errol Morris' films more than ever, with "Mr. Death" already on several top ten lists and "The Thin Blue Line," "Vernon, Florida," and "Gates of Heaven" all being reissued by the Independent Film Channel. One way of looking at his success in creating great art without "selling out" is that he engages people by respecting them, by trusting their intelligence. He doesn't assume a superiority that would lead him to simplify his presentation, and in doing so, he engages audiences on levels unusual to many current films.

So, have the years have brought him any closer to portraying some sort of truth?

"No," he laughs, "but I'm still having fun."