@Courtesy of film, “Super Size Me”
The documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock died yesterday in upstate New York at the age of 53 of cancer complications. His brother Craig announced it with this statement: “It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan. Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him”.
Morgan Spurlock’s career had its breakthrough in 2004 when he released ‘Super Size Me’, which obtained an Acadamy Awards nomination as best documentary. Most importantly, it raised the debate about American food habits, especially regarding fast food. In ‘Super Size Me’ Spurlock himself was the protagonist of the controversial experiment involving eating only McDonald’s meals for 30 straight days. A diet that had a significant impact on his physical and mental health at that time.
‘Super Size Me’ was one of the hits at the Sundance Film Festival 2004, where achieved a prize for directing. It also won the inaugural Writers Guild of America Best Documentary Screenplay Award. In 2017 Spurlock realized ‘Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!’, in which he tried to open his fast food restaurant based on fried chicken meals. This has been his last documentary.
Morgan Spurlock was born on November 7th, 1970 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and raised in Beckley, where he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. In 1993 he graduated from New York University. His career hasn’t been only about ‘Super Size Me’: in 2008 he directed the satyrical documentary ‘Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?’ and in 2012 ‘Mansome’ among many other documentaries and TV episodes. He has also been the host of the CNN show Inside Man.
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