Errol Morris visits campus; audience invited to TV taping

With UW–Madison’s Year of the Arts in full swing, a tribute to documentary filmmaker and 1969 graduate Errol Morris is one of the marquee events during the fall semester. Now, the cameras will turn on Morris himself, as an audience of students and friends welcomes him back to Madison.

Errol Morris will be the next guest on Wisconsin Reflections, airing on the Big Ten Network. Persons interested in joining the audience are invited to the taping on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 10:30 a.m. in the Wisconsin Public Television studios, second floor, Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave.

Morris and his work will also be the center of several other campus events.

Since receiving his BA in history, Morris has earned a reputation as one of America’s leading directors. Famous for probing the fascinating lives of regular – and not-so-regular – people, his subjects have ranged from physicist Stephen Hawking and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to prison execution technician Fred Leuchter and pet cemetery operator Floyd McClure.

With nine documentary features (including the current film “Tabloid”) and over 1000 commercials to his credit, he has received nearly every top award in his field, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation and MacArthur Foundation. In addition, his award-winning New York Times blog on issues in photography has led to an upcoming book entitled “The Cow is Thinking Nothing: Reflections on Photography, Perception and Reality” (to be published next year).

The time commitment for this taping will be roughly 90 minutes, including a question-and-answer period.

If you would like to be a part of the audience, send an e-mail to audience@uc.wisc.edu.