Errol Morris’s six-minute short documentary in the New York Times, The Umbrella Man, is both a fascinating little mystery and an oddly joyous tale about the nature of human curiosity and behavior. “It’s as if there’s the macro level of historical research where things sort of obey natural laws, and usual things happen and unusual things don’t happen. And then there’s this other level where everything is really weird,†explains Josiah “Tink†Thompson, an expert on JFK’s assassination. “If you have any fact, which you think is really sinister … forget it, man,†Thompson says. “You can never on your own think up all the non-sinister, perfectly valid explanations.†Seriously, this is great.
