Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, whose first feature film was the Oscar-nominated Super Size Me that shifted public perceptions of junk food, especially the McDonald’s chain, died Thursday in upstate New York from complications of cancer. He was 53.

“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” his brother Craig Spurlock said in a family statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”

The family said Spurlock passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends.

Spurlock, a native West Virginian, graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to pursue his dream of making movies. After working primarily in TV, he released Super Size Me in 2004, which featured Spurlock eating only McDonald’s for 30 days. Soon after he shot his film,...