The legacy of Morgan Spurlock, and Mitchell Block

Show Transcript

Double Quarter Pounder with cheese meal Super side. I think I'm gonna have to go super side. It is hard for me to watch him go through this. It seems like you're starting to get addicted to it now.

You saw these numbers, right? These numbers are outrageous. More and more you gotta stop. Okay, so we've got another episode of Fog of Truth.

And on this particular one, we are going to do something we've done once before with the film of the North, which is go back to look at either films or filmmakers that have done stuff in the past as opposed to a recent release. And this one due to the recent passing of Morgan Spurlock, we are going to talk about him. His impact as a filmmaker and in particular supersize me. So, there we go.

Art Justina. Let's talk about Morgan s Spurlock. Well, Morgan s Spurlock is a fascinating character. I think he was incredibly influential in his time.

And 2004, when Supersize Meat came out, it really had an effect on a lot of people and it really mixed a sense of politics and putting yourself into the film. I think what is really interesting in thinking about this is that his way of making films and putting himself in the film is generationally different than the way people did it before him. And when you think of people like Marlon Riggs with Tongues Untied, or Alan Berlin and Ross m. There was a different nature in the way they presented themselves in the film.

And I think what it is, as I was trying to think about it, what is it that makes his films different than these others from the past? And I think that is Morgan Spurlock is a character from the MTV generation, and that's the way he presents himself as part of that sense of that generation. And I. He is more aware of a sense of performance than I think the other filmmakers were.

I think the other filmmakers were just talking to the camera, but I think he is more performing for the camera. Yeah, and I think along with that, it is that idea of, there's one thing to have yourself included on camera, either as you interview subjects or as you are. Experiencing events, filming them, but exactly what you're saying, where you're, you go another step to where you are. Part of the story obviously supersize me.

It was an experiment with him as the medical subject, so to speak, going through this process. So therefore it was about him. But yeah. But I think it even takes it another step from even the Michael Moore stuff.

'cause even though Michael Moore was an entertainer, he was still. Dealing with the subject or dealing with the thing, and he was doing his bits with it. But with Morgan's stuff, he is the show. Yeah.

I think he not only influenced documentaries by changing how he did, by doing it his own way, but he also birthed the influencer movement that we see now on social media of performative investigative reporting, which I think this is the what, the 20 year anniversary of supersize me. In those 20 years, we have seen not as much in the documentary genre, but actually in social media and YouTube, his style flourished. And would you also say TikTok? Oh, yeah.

Your algorithm does for you, but yeah. But yeah, I think that you make a really good point that he predates that sense of performing for the media. In a way that is so natural now, and I think that his film paved the way for that. What I didn't know until I started like researching for today was he tried 23 films like I Know Supersized Me and Holy Chicken, and I actually do not know the films in between.

So I was actually shocked by how prolific he was. He was one of those guys that was always able to get a project funded. And some of them people heard about where the world is, Osama Bin Laden and a part of Freakonomics, part of those films I think he might have produced or executive produced. But I think in, in a sense, it's like the Orson Well syndrome.

He made a really good film and then he never really was able to make a film as groundbreaking as that first film. At least with Orson Wells. He did make a lot of other really good films, but people are always comparing him to, is this going to be another Susan Kane? And I don't think that Morgan Spurlock ever did something that rise to that sense, but I think that's another element about Morgan Spurlock that I wanted to talk about where he also, in the documentary world.

Forged a way of documentary filmmaking as, I don't know, like a business for the filmmaker as opposed to just cobbling together footage for the next film and scraping along to follow the next subject. He was, as you said, Bart, he actually was able to get funding thanks to the notoriety and the, and the name that he created for himself and the branding that he created for himself as a filmmaker, I. To do these subsequent projects that, yeah, you kept trying to grab the brass ring. That was supersize me, didn't quite do that, but still flourished as a filmmaker, as Justina was saying, with a, a, a prolific nature that not many documentary filmmakers could match.

And he was that prolific and stopped creating in 2017. And part of that sense of marketing really comes through in that the palm film. Which is all about marketing and Right. I think that he really got that marketing gene, which most documentary filmmakers that are so deeply into their subject, they don't think about marketing probably until it's too late.

Whereas I think that's sort of is natural to him. He's a sign of a natural marketer, which is often not a combination for a documentary filmmakers or filmmakers in general. Yeah, that's true. But documentary filmmakers more often, because most documentaries, filmmakers are, I need to tell you about this thing, about this thing that's wrong in the world.

And that's not about like, how can I get you to buy some drink? It's that they're different motivations for getting you to experience the media in front of them. Where do you think that Spurlock, it changed documentary filmmaking in any way? I think in some ways I think that it helped a different generation of people who hadn't really watched or taken documentaries seriously, gave 'em an opportunity to see something that they could relate to this.

This is not Nika the North. This is entertaining it. It has all the entertainment values of a narrative film, and it has pacing for narrative film. So I think it.

People to the medium, which I do think is a good idea. But do you, did he have a lot of like people who mimicked him later because it feels like he's, he still was the unique voice. Yeah. I think that his voice was unique and I don't think that anybody copied him.

So no, I don't think there's a, there probably is some place, but I haven't really seen it. Justina, you told me that you just watched Supersize Me two. Recently, do you wanna talk a little bit about that and how that 'cause in a sense, those things bookend his career, right? First.

Not as many people have seen supersize. Me too. So you want to talk about the making of a chicken sandwich? Has fast food gotten healthier?

Absolutely Has fast food truly turned a corner to find out? I could go back on an all fast food diet, but something tells me this calls for a different approach. I wanna start my own fast food restaurant. You're crazy.

Tell me what kind of food the most eaten animal on the planet. Chicken. If I can have the farm that brings the chickens to the restaurant. That's a good story.

Go forth and find your chickens. I am your chicken father. That is a lot of chickens. My free range, cage free.

No hormones added. Humanely raised natural chickens can get the USDA's seal of approval. Sounds amazing. Until you start to realize how much of that is labeling.

What's the smallest space we could give them that would still be quantified as free range, free range. Welcome to your fluorescent lit restaurant. Everywhere you touch is just greasy and sticky. It's like somebody cleaning the grill with like cleaning solvent.

Ugh. Research is what this is. Welcome to Chicken Corporate Training. Woo.

They've been health washing the dirty, unhealthy truth. Fresh green herbs give a health halo. The term fried has evolved to crispy artificial grill marks. You can paint them on with dark food coloring.

How healthy are our sandwiches? I think, I think that answers my question. What if there was a company that was completely honest with their customers? Well, why would they do that?

Are people actually ready for a 100% honest food experience? Oh, look as hollow. You can actually put it on like a mit, you should not be able to do this with a chicken sandwich. Yeah.

Morgan decides to open his own fast food restaurant. And does the research revisits McDonald's, which is a cathartic moment for him to say the least. And he, by opening this fast food restaurant, actually exposes how bad fast food still is by creating the most transparent fast food restaurant Holy Chicken. And I so wish it still existed because I would still eat there, even though I'd feel horrible as I read how horrible it was.

He really goes into depth about the farmers who are exploited to create the fast food chicken that we eat. To me, that was the most interesting part of this film was to the whole sense of, what did he call it, big chicken. That there are only what, four or five companies that control all the chicken we eat and the having independent farmers and having ways to get the chickens and all of that is manipulated. It reminded me of a really good film about farming called King corn that also has talked about what is in the food we eat and the sense of, of farming.

It was an ITBS film from several years ago, but can you think about the differences and similarities between that first one and, and the chicken one? The similarities are definitely still doing a stunt, right? Eating for 30 days versus opening a restaurant. And in both he's very informative, like he doesn't rely on entertainment in both of them.

He definitely finds out stuff, but he had a little more of a Michael Morant to me in that he, the knocking on the council chicken council's doors and inviting them to it with a little Michael Moreish more than him. And I think he had grown up quite a bit. There wasn't an aha feel to him. It was actually a little more in an adult version.

Of the guy from 15 years previous and that was me. But yeah, I think aside from an evolved style, he really stays true to his voice. Yeah, I think that's true. What do you think, John?

Did you watch supersize? Me too. I did not. I did not.

I went back and and watched supersize me the original. And what did you see this time that you may have not paid attention to when you saw it as a young man? I found it surprisingly informational in a legitimate way. And what I remembered, because I remembered his experience and I remembered the stuff of not feeling well and gaining weight and his triglycerides just exploding, but it actually has a very methodical, thoughtful approach to mapping out and scaling what the stuff is doing to him.

And with the multiple doctors that he's speaking to and the multiple people, it provides different balance to it. Then I remembered 'cause I just, I remember the sensationalistic stuff of him that it actually I thought held up. It, it's interesting because I think now we know that he also had a, a drinking problem during the shooting of that film. So there is a scene where the doctor says it's as if you were on a bender.

And we now know that he was also on vendors during that time. And it's interesting how I think that growing up in supersize me too. Part of that is, is that he is not going for the shock of almost dying after 30 days of eating McDonald's. He sees that it's shocking enough.

The reality is shocking enough, and I don't think he had an intent to lie and supersize me. I think he just didn't realize that his drinking was actually also affecting his health. I think he could have been a little more truthful in mentioning that. I don't think it would've harmed the story at all if he would've said that.

No. And I think he has that realization somewhere in supersize Me too. 'cause I don't feel like there's as much of that Amity, is that the right word? And in 2017, after he made supersize me too, he did actually cancel him himself and step out of the limelight.

So there's a lot of growing up that happened in the last years of his life. Justina, do you wanna talk about that? Why he stepped out? That John reminded me of, I forgot that he stepped out because he admitted that he was part of the problem in the Me Too movement, probably related a lot to that drinking and stuff.

He admitted to doing some wrong acts, not mild, very bad. So he, he was one of the few celebrities who said, I'm wrong. I'm part of the problem and I'm stepping out. And even in social media, the only social media you saw after that was to promote.

The chicken farmers, not even the film as much as the chicken between 17 and 2019. So John, what do you think the legacy of him really is? I think because he had such a distinctive presence and style that I think he's gonna be one of those hallmark figures that frankly, as time goes on, will still stick with us because. On a filmmaking level, on a stylistic level, he really was the face of a very specific approach.

And you may have other filmmakers arguably more accomplished like the Alex Gibney's of the world or what have you, but those filmmakers still fade into the background in the midst of the projects they're doing, regardless of if they're, again, seen in the films interviewing their subjects. Be like a Michael Moore. Again, those figurehead, those branded figures that then follow suit from the Maisels and from the DA Pennebaker's to another generation. I don't think he disappears.

Yeah. My sense is that certainly the first film will still live on and still be watched a lot. In the end, he will be remembered for this film and for taking that different approach to that first person film and that sense of performance that I think people will remember. And also, I think he's very much of that era when showing your film at Sundance changed a lot.

And I think that when it played at Sundance, that kind of reverberated in a major way that I don't think Sundance does as much anymore. Yeah. It it also was in that respect. Yep.

Stephen Soderberg with a sex license and videotape to Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs and people that, that, yeah, that, that signified. What Sundance would do to kick somebody up into the stratosphere. And he was a very easy to see version of that as well. And that just speaks to now the diminishment of of Sundance in terms of the business and impact that it has nowadays.

So John, because you mentioned the dance, where do you think the Sundance Film Festival will be next year? I'm pretty sure it will still be at Park City. I don't know how much longer it will be in Park City, but I do think that they will probably have one more version in Park City. And again, the question is how much people will give a dance.

So Justina, do you have any closing remarks on Morgan Spurlock supersize me or the end of Sundance and Park Cities? I'm gonna stop eating chicken and that's uh, and I won't say anything about Sundance. And the problem is I like chicken sandwiches. I really do.

I'm trying not to eat as much beef. But before we leave, I do want to mention that another documentary figure passed away this week, Mitchell Block and Mitchell made a film that actually wasn't a documentary in 1973 called No Lies, and the film is part of the National Registry. It did very well in festivals. It got major distribution.

And it's this fake cinema verite film about this woman talking about how she was raped. And the filmmaker is really annoying in asking inappropriate questions and that, do you find the end out that it was a performance, that it was not a documentary and it really had a major impact after that film? He had a distribution and he didn't like what was happening in this distribution. So we started his own distribution company called Direct Cinema that distributed a lot of very important films.

He was also a member of the Motion Picture Academy in the documentary area, and really helped to change how the documentary unit did its work. Because that changed over time. There were some very controversial films that were now called documentaries, and Mitch was very instrumental in making some of those changes. He also was a consultant to Sheila Nevins with HBO, had a film that he produced that won an Oscar.

And to tie this back to the beginning, both Mitchell Block and Morgan Spurlock went to the NYU TI School. So there you have it. Oh, by the way, did you know that Morgan Spurlock was in a fraternity? What kind of fraternity?

I don't know. I just happened to see that someplace. And what sort of struck me with that is having been a film teacher for so long is very rare that you have a film student who's in maternity because like film work takes an awful lot of time. And if you're.

Part of a fraternity you like, go to all these parties and those two things don't work. But it somehow makes sense to me that Morgan Spurlock was in a fraternity like in this way, that it fits John, weren't you in a fraternity? Yes, I was in a fraternity, Justina. Oh.

Um, well, somehow I managed to go to all of those events that, that Bart is talking about, and yet I was also able to do a lot of other things. Of course, I was a theater student, right? I did a lot of performances and what have you. But John, we all know that you were extraordinary.

You know, that's for another episode though, Bart. Indeed, indeed. No. Record it.

And that'll be the episode after Sundance comes after me for my comments on this one. I don't think you'll ever get to do promotion for Sundance. Yeah, yeah. I, I will be, I won't be holding my breath on that.

Thank you very much for listening to another episode of Positive Truth. After you watch, you may and see both. To be seen and I think that time and you should make your own, find out about the difference between the two of them, and if you do, you can send us an email at disin info@fogoftruth.com. The Fog of Truth musical theme was composed by Jeremiah Moore composed for us.

We are very happy to use it with his submission. We will have new episodes up very soon. Thank you so much for listening.