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About the Filmmakers
ERROL MORRIS (Producer and Director) began making his first non-fiction feature in 1978 after reading a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: "450 Dead Pets To Go To Napa." The resulting picture, "Gates of Heaven," was called by Roger Ebert "one of the ten best films of all time." Morris' next film, "Vernon, Florida" (1981), about the eccentric residents of a southern swamp town, was called by David Ansen in Newsweek, "the work of a true original."

In 1988 Morris completed his most controversial film, "The Thin Blue Line." Billed as "the first movie mystery to actually solve a murder, " the film is credited with overturning the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood, a crime for which Adams was to be executed. "The Thin Blue Line" was voted the best film of 1988 in a Washington Post survey of over one hundred film critics. It was voted best documentary of 1988 by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, won The Golden Horse for Best Foreign Film at the Taiwan International Film Festival and received an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America. Premiere magazine, in a survey of films of the 1980s, described it as one of the most important and influential movies of the decade.

In 1992, Errol finished "A Brief History of Time," about the life and work of Stephen Hawking , the physicist who is often compared to Einstein and who is paralyzed and has spent his life in a wheelchair. "A Brief History of Time" won the Filmmaker's Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Morris' interviews for the film have been incorporated into a book, A Reader's Companion, published by Bantam Books. The film appeared on many "top ten" lists for 1992, including Time, The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Morris' first fiction feature, "The Dark Wind," starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Ward, was completed in 1991 for Carolco Pictures. It is an adaptation of Tony Hillerman's novel and was produced by Robert Redford.

Morris has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and was a graduate student at Princeton University and the University of California - Berkeley.

Morris lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Julia Sheehan, an art historian, and their son, Hamilton.

MARK LIPSON (Producer) is a graduate of the NYU film school and served as the curator of the Hal Roach Studio film library from 1980-83. He began his career as a producer in 1982 as Associate Producer of the feature film "Children of the Corn," and in 1984 produced the comedy "Almost You" for 20th Century Fox. His has previously worked with Errol Morris as producer on Morris' 1988 film "The Thin Blue Line." Lipson recently finished production on three documentaries for PBS television, "A Question of Equality," "The United States of Poetry" and "Signal to Noise," on which he acted as Supervising Producer.

ROBERT RICHARDSON (Director of Photography) won the Academy Award for his work on "JFK" and has shot almost all of Oliver Stone's films, including "Nixon," "Natural Born Killers," "Heaven and Earth," "The Doors," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Wall Street," "Talk Radio" and "Platoon." His other credits include Rob Reiner's "A Few Good Men," John Sayles' "City of Hope" and "Eight Men Out," Penelope Spheeris' "Dudes" and Martin Scorsese's "Casino."

KAREN SCHMEER (Editor) began her career in film at Errol Morris' Fourth Floor Productions as a researcher and graphics assistant, after receiving a BA in Film Studies and Anthropology from Boston University in 1992. A first-time editor on "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control," Schmeer will continue to work with Errol Morris on future projects, including "Whatever Happened to Einstein's Brain..." and several new "Interrotron Stories" episodes.

SHONDRA MERRILL (Editor) has been an AVID editor for Errol Morris since "The Stalker," a pilot for ABC television. This pilot led to a mini-series for FOX television called "Interrotron Stories," which she also edited, including the episodes "Digging Up the Past," "I Dismember Mama" and "The Parrot." Merrill has worked as an editor of commercials and created ads for Ford, Sony and the Massachusetts Department of Health, among others. "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control" is her first feature film.

TED BAFALOUKOS (Production Designer) has worked extensively in film and television. He previously teamed up with Director Errol Morris on "A Brief History of Time," "The Dark Wind," "The Thin Blue Line", and the TV Pilots for "Interrotron Stories: Digging up the Past" and "Back Page: Parrot." Bafaloukos' film credits include Production Designer for "The Natural," "Diner," an Project Consultant for "Avalon." He made his directorial debut with the dramatic feature film "Rockers," (1978) which he shot in Jamaica with a cast that featured leading reggae musicians. He acted as Production Designer for various music videos for Aerosmith, Robert Palmer, and Talking Heads, as well as for national television commercials.

CALEB SAMPSON (Composer) has been working with Errol Morris since 1995, having scored his "Interrotron Stories" series for ABC and FOX television. His documentary credits include the television series and mini-series "NOVA," "The American Experience" and "Scientific American," the films "Leona's Sister Gerri" and "My Father's Garden" and the upcoming television special "Mystery of the Last Tsar." Sampson composes extensively for children's television and has worked for "Sesame Street" since 1988. Sampson also co-founded and composes for the Alloy Orchestra, a three-person ensemble that creates and performs original scores for classic silent films like "Metropolis," "Nosferatu," "The Man with a Movie Camera," and others to great acclaim all over the world, and, since 1992, has received annual commissions for new work to be premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Sampson has frequently composed for theater and is currently collaborating with Andre Gregory ("My Dinner with Andre," "Vanya on 42nd Street") on an upcoming musical to be produced by the New York Theater Workshop.


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