Showtime has unveiled the first trailer for documentarian extraordinaire Errol Morris’ latest film. The current title for this one is “A Film By Errol Morris,” I presume because they haven't yet decided on an official one. The documentary will focus on LSD and the "High Priest of LSD" Timothy Leary. I’m already sold. The film is inspired by Harcourt-Smith's memoir, "Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story” and has Morris interviewing Harcourt-Smith as she talks about her history with the drug and Leary before he became an informant for the FBI.
As mentioned, Morris is a legend of the documentary form with such films as “Gates of Heaven,” “The Fog of War,” and “Fast Cheap & Out of Control” to his name. However, it’s for 1988’s “The Thin Blue Line” that Morris will forever be remembered by. Not only did this landmark film manage to obtain an on-camera guilty murder admission, but it’s also known as the first major documentary to dramatically re-enact real-life events to tell its story. Morris’ usage of filmed re-enactment was so controversial back in 1988 that people wondered if it should even be considered a documentary. The Academy didn’t think so as it was snubbed in the Best Documentary category.
The official synopsis for “A Film By Errol Morris”:
A Film By Errol Morris asks the question why Leary, the High Priest of LSD, became a narc in 1974 and seemingly abandoned the millions he urged to turn on, tune in and drop out. Was his "perfect love" Joanna Harcourt-Smith a government pawn, as suggested by Allen Ginsberg? Or was she simply a rich, beautiful, young woman out for the adventure of a lifetime? Morris and Harcourt-Smith will reexamine this chaotic period of her life and explore the mystery of her own Leary saga: his period of exile, reimprisonment and subsequent cooperation with the authorities. Devotion or selfishness? Perfect love or outright betrayal? Destiny or manipulation?
Showtime will debut “A Film By Errol Morris” sometime later this year.