Filmmaker Errol Morris Defends Steve Bannon Documentary ‘American Dharma’ Amidst Heavy Criticism

While most of the film industry community is focused on the big names that are debuting big projects at the Venice Film Festival, there seems to be a bit of controversy surrounding one of the smaller titles. “American Dharma” is a documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Errol Morris. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is probably best known for films “The Fog of War” and “The Thin Blue Line,” but his latest work, is putting him in the crosshairs of many in the media because of its relation to polarizing political figure, Steve Bannon.

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For those that don’t know, “American Dharma” is a documentary that explores the life and political career of Breitbart boss, and one-time Donald Trump right-hand man, Steve Bannon. By most accounts, ‘Dharma’ is far from a loving portrait of the right-wing figure, but the film is drawing the ire of many nonetheless. There are critics that say that Morris shouldn’t even do a film about Bannon, and by doing so, normalizes the extreme views of the subject.

At a recent Venice Film Festival news conference (via Variety), Morris spoke up about those claims and why he thinks it’s vitally important for a film like “American Dharma” to exist.

Morris explained that “disturbing things are happening in the U.S. and the world, and it is important for us, certainly the people in America and probably the people throughout the world, to understand better what’s going on. To ignore it [would be a] big mistake, very big mistake.”

He continued, “You stick your head in a hole in the ground, and since you can no longer see any danger people conclude there is none. When, in fact, there is terrible danger, and the better we can understand the nature of that danger the better off we all are.”

When he was asked specifically about normalizing Bannon’s views by presenting them in a film, Morris said he “struggled” with that notion and continues to do so, but he contends that his film does something different.

The filmmaker likened himself to a journalist and said “part of the role of journalists in our society is to investigate things. Not just simply to discuss this person’s opinion or that person’s opinion, but to go out and try to find things out, and that’s what I tried to do with ‘American Dharma.’”

He concluded by saying, “We are all endlessly puzzled in America. What the hell is going on in the U.S.? What are we facing? If you are trying to tell me this is evil, bad, pernicious or destructive, I am not arguing with you. If you are telling me that it is so deeply pernicious and destructive that we shouldn’t talk about it at all, I say that’s nonsense talk. You’re wrong. It is extraordinarily important that we all talk about it and try to come to a deeper understanding of it.”

“American Dharma” had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will play later this month at the Toronto International Film festival, as well as the New York Film Festival.

Check out all our coverage from the 2018 Venice Film Festival here.