| Release Date: | Sep 16, 2009 |
| Running Time: | 91 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
synopsis
Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., an engineer from Malden, Mass. decided to become the Florence Nightengale of Death Row — a humanitarian whose mission was to design and repair, electric chairs, lethal injection systems, gallows and gas chambers. In 1988, Ernst Zundel, publisher of "Did Six Million Really Die?" and "The Hitler We Loved and Why" commissioned Leuchter to conduct a forensic investigation into the use of poison gas in WWII Nazi concentration camps. Leuchter traveled to Auschwitz and illegally took brick and mortar samples for analysis in order to "prove" that the Holocaust never happened.
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One of the most acclaimed documentary filmmakers of the late 20th century and beyond, Oscar-winning director Errol Morris sought to uncover the truth, or various truths, behind unusual and controversial subjects in such films as THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988), MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED A. LEUCHTER, JR. (1999), THE FOG OF WAR (2003) and TABOLOID (2010). An avowed fan of film noir, Morris approached his films like a detective might, examining all the evidence, assembling hypotheses, and using decidedly non-documentary approaches like re-enactments, animation and found footage to assemble all the facts for viewers, who were then allowed to draw their own conclusions rather than adhere to Morris' own theories. The results were some of the most visually stunning documentaries ever made and, in the case of "The Thin Blue Line," a groundbreaking, genre-bending effort that resulted in the reversal of a life sentence for murder. Morris' work eventually transformed the way in which documentaries were produced, with re-enactments and his signature interview method, which had subjects directly address the camera becoming the norm for fact-based film and television projects.
