Gruesome tales of grisly murder. Horror stories of kids in cults. False confessions and authentic admissions.
True crime has taken over the documentary space, proving a reliable audience attractor for streaming platforms, network and cable channels. While it’s the most popular genre within nonfiction programming broadly speaking, whether that will translate to success with Emmy voters remains an open question. One thing’s for certain: there’s no lack of contenders — twisted tales dripping with blood.
Netflix leads the way with multiple suitors, among them Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, the grim story of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, built largely around recorded interviews between Dahmer and one of his young defense attorneys in the early 1990s. It’s directed and executive produced by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, one of the leading figures in documentary.
“As a storyteller, I thought the...
True crime has taken over the documentary space, proving a reliable audience attractor for streaming platforms, network and cable channels. While it’s the most popular genre within nonfiction programming broadly speaking, whether that will translate to success with Emmy voters remains an open question. One thing’s for certain: there’s no lack of contenders — twisted tales dripping with blood.
Netflix leads the way with multiple suitors, among them Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, the grim story of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, built largely around recorded interviews between Dahmer and one of his young defense attorneys in the early 1990s. It’s directed and executive produced by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, one of the leading figures in documentary.
“As a storyteller, I thought the...
- 6/3/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
In June 2017 The New Yorker magazine published a piece under the evocative title, “Remembering the Murder You Didn’t Commit.”
It told the story of the “Beatrice Six”–three men and three women sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the 1985 rape and murder of a grandmother in the small Nebraska town of Beatrice (pronounced bee-at-trice). Five of the accused had confessed; only one had steadfastly maintained his innocence. More than two decades passed before DNA testing revealed none of those convicted had been present at the crime scene.
Among those who read The New Yorker article back in 2017 was filmmaker Nanfu Wang.
“I was immediately intrigued,” Wang recalls. “After reading [the article], I knew that I wanted to explore it in the form of a film.”
That exploration evolved into the new six-part documentary series Mind Over Murder, for HBO. A new episode premieres on the cable channel each Monday through July...
It told the story of the “Beatrice Six”–three men and three women sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the 1985 rape and murder of a grandmother in the small Nebraska town of Beatrice (pronounced bee-at-trice). Five of the accused had confessed; only one had steadfastly maintained his innocence. More than two decades passed before DNA testing revealed none of those convicted had been present at the crime scene.
Among those who read The New Yorker article back in 2017 was filmmaker Nanfu Wang.
“I was immediately intrigued,” Wang recalls. “After reading [the article], I knew that I wanted to explore it in the form of a film.”
That exploration evolved into the new six-part documentary series Mind Over Murder, for HBO. A new episode premieres on the cable channel each Monday through July...
- 6/30/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Documentary filmmaking the process of being a subject of a documentary have long amounted to a type of performative therapy, the camera acting as a sort of hybrid therapist/priest/judge.
An interesting spin on that theme, in recent years, has been the rise of performative therapy as documentary. Robert Greene (Procession, Bisbee ’17 and Kate Plays Christine) and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) are among the leading figures in this subgenre, in which filmmakers observe or sometimes orchestrate artistic exercises as a way of helping people confront psychological wounds and maybe reach catharsis, rather than simply making a film about the psychological wounds themselves.
Pushing the form to docuseries length is HBO’s Mind Over Murder from director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation). A feature documentary absolutely could be made exclusively about the six people convicted and...
Documentary filmmaking the process of being a subject of a documentary have long amounted to a type of performative therapy, the camera acting as a sort of hybrid therapist/priest/judge.
An interesting spin on that theme, in recent years, has been the rise of performative therapy as documentary. Robert Greene (Procession, Bisbee ’17 and Kate Plays Christine) and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) are among the leading figures in this subgenre, in which filmmakers observe or sometimes orchestrate artistic exercises as a way of helping people confront psychological wounds and maybe reach catharsis, rather than simply making a film about the psychological wounds themselves.
Pushing the form to docuseries length is HBO’s Mind Over Murder from director Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation). A feature documentary absolutely could be made exclusively about the six people convicted and...
- 6/21/2022
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The DVD market continues to get flooded with horror fare based on real-life maniacs. Black Cadillac director John Murlowski's latest, Freeway Killer , is set to make its DVD debut on February 16 through Image Entertainment. David Birke, of Gacy , scripted this true story of William Bonin, a serial killer who terrorized California's freeways from 1979 to 1980. Scott Leet essays the role of Bonin. Michael Rooker ( Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer ), Cole Williams, Eileen Dietz and Helen Wilson. The disc will contain an audio commentary and making-of featurette.
- 11/22/2009
- shocktillyoudrop.com
Image Entertainment announced recently that it has acquired North American rights to the classic horror/suspense TV series Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff. The company plans a deluxe DVD boxed set for release in 2010.
Widely acknowledged as one of the great genre shows (Stephen King once called it the best in American TV history), Thriller ran from 1960-62 and featured, among its 67 episodes, adaptations of stories by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Psycho’s Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Robert E. Howard and others. Guest stars included William Shatner, John Carradine, Robert Vaughn, Leslie Nielsen, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ursula Andress and many more. The entire series will be remastered for the disc package, which will also include audio commentaries for many of the episodes, interviews and other extras currently being developed. Stay tuned for further details on the specific contents and release date.
Image also has Freeway Killer coming on DVD...
Widely acknowledged as one of the great genre shows (Stephen King once called it the best in American TV history), Thriller ran from 1960-62 and featured, among its 67 episodes, adaptations of stories by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Psycho’s Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Robert E. Howard and others. Guest stars included William Shatner, John Carradine, Robert Vaughn, Leslie Nielsen, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ursula Andress and many more. The entire series will be remastered for the disc package, which will also include audio commentaries for many of the episodes, interviews and other extras currently being developed. Stay tuned for further details on the specific contents and release date.
Image also has Freeway Killer coming on DVD...
- 11/18/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
- Fangoria
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