“They Were There” — Errol Morris Finally Directs a Film for IBM

In the late 1990s, Errol Morris, the acclaimed director, was hired to make a film for an “in house” conference of IBM employees. Eventually IBM canceled the conference, and the film was scrapped. (Watch a clip of it here.) Now more than a decade later, IBM has brought Morris back, this time to direct a film meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the company’s founding. The 30-minute film, They Were There, appears on IBM’s YouTube Channel, and it notably features music by Philip Glass. As you will perhaps recall, Morris and Glass previously teamed up on the 2003 Oscar-winning documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Both films are listed in our collection, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, Documentaries & More.

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Related Content:

November 22, 1963: Watch Errol Morris’ Short Documentary About the Kennedy Assassination

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  • Robert Byers says:

    It was interesting but not well done.
    I found offensive the part where the Black man was saying there was no discrimination in IBM and he was going on about the south and then BANG he says IBM looks for smart/great people in other cultures.
    This is classic code for affirmative action on behalf of unsuccessful identity groups, like blacks, and women .
    In short they discriminate .
    in fact the good jobs at IBM belong to the American people or citizens without any interference based on identity in getting those positions.
    They are hiring based on identity and not regardless of it.
    This is immoral and illegal.
    further they hire foreigners who don’t deserve American jobs in the first place of any type.
    There is other issues about identity and who gets what.

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