Joe Berlinger
-
“Just Keep Asking”: True Crime Filmmakers Talk About Pushing A Classic Genre In New And More Ethical Directions At IFP Week 2019
True crime has been having a moment, as they say, for a while now. In a way it’s never not been having a moment, but the genre has rapidly evolved in the digital age, when more information is available to more people, when conspiracy theorists run wild on Reddit and 4chan, and when there’s simply more content being produced. All this means not only more crime content, but also shows and movies that are more thoughtful, more creative, and even more conscious of ethical or moral quandaries that may crop up in the process of covering true crimes. The panel […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 17, 2019 -
Who Inspires Us?
A feature entitled “Who Inspires Us?” appeared in the Fall 2003 edition of Filmmaker. Suggested by Ted Hope, the article contained 36 filmmakers writing simply about the inspirations sustaining their creative lives. I think that we can all agree that, 14 years later, inspiration is now an even more important commodity than ever. So, we went back to six of that article’s filmmakers, asked them to read their original responses and comment again — both on those responses and on who or what is inspiring them now. Screenwriter (Savage Grace) and former WGA President Howard Rodman’s contribution cited German artist […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 14, 2017 -
Bruce Sinofsky, 1956 – 2015
Documentary director Bruce Sinofsky, whose Paradise Lost Trilogy collaborations with Joe Berlinger caused the release of the wrongly-convicted West Memphis Three, died this morning of complications from diabetes. Sinofsky’s passing was reported by Berlinger on Twitter. Sinofsky and Berlinger were nominated for an Academy Award in 2011 for the final film in the Paradise Lost trilogy, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory — the culmination of a filmic and legal odyssey that began in 1996 with Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills. In a 2011 Filmmaker interview, Sinofsky remembers the series beginning: When we went down to Arkansas, for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 21, 2015 -
Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger | Director Joe Berlinger
Attention, our audience’s and our own — it’s a valued commodity these days. We struggle to command our audience’s attention, for them to discover our work and then, once they’ve discovered it, to actually focus on it. Meanwhile, we struggle to focus our own attention, to fight our society’s weapons of mass distraction so we can not just see our work to completion but fully discover the meanings within it. What role does attention play in your work? Can you discuss an instance where you thought about some aspect of attention when it came to your film? Tune out the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 17, 2014 -
“WEST OF MEMPHIS” WITH DEPP IN TORONTO
West of Memphis is a testament to the power of documentary–and celebrity–to effect social change. If that sounds grandiose then consider that Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost documentaries inspired Johnny Depp (pictured at the Toronto International Film Festival press conference) to campaign for the release of three convicted child murderers. Rock stars Eddie Vedder and Henry Rollins performed benefit concerts and produced a CD to raise awareness and funds for them. Peter Jackson, known for directing fantasy blockbusters like Lord of The Rings and King Kong, financed a new investigation. In 1993, three teenage boys were sentenced to death for […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 8, 2012 -
WRAPPING SILVERDOCS 2012
Brutus McCracker, a Chihuahua with a camera mounted on his collar, wandered through the Silver Spring Civic Building capturing low-angle moments of the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Film Festival. The camera is featured in Seth Keal’s short CatCam, one of 114 films from 44 countries programmed in the 10th edition of Silverdocs that concluded yesterday. The canine mascot provided a cheery reminder of the relaxed nature and intimate setting of the festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, a multicultural suburb abutting Washington, D.C. With its proximity to our nation’s capital, the festival specializes in social issue docs and attracts activists and political […]
by Rania Richardson on Jun 25, 2012 -
THE SANTA CRUZ FILM FESTIVAL
The “Keep Santa Cruz Weird” campaign in the northern California city that’s been host to the Santa Cruz Film Festival for nearly a dozen years now seems more than a cheap ploy to sell bumper stickers (though the one that read “You’re just jealous because the voices are talking to me” probably captures the essence of the place even better). It’s a serious – and controversial – plea to retain a way of life. For Santa Cruz is nothing if not, well, weird. So exotic, in fact, that SCFF should probably qualify as a foreign film festival showcasing American flicks […]
by Lauren Wissot on May 29, 2012 -
“UNDER AFRICAN SKIES” | director, Joe Berlinger
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, January 22 8:00 pm –The MARC, Park City] I am as surprised as anyone that I have actually been able to raise a family by doing nonfiction work for the past 2 decades. In that time, I have witnessed a lot of change – in technology, in distribution, in audience appetites and in the maturation of nonfiction as an industry – and we can certainly have a healthy debate about whether it is easier or harder to make a living these days as a nonfiction film and television maker than it was 5, 10 or even 20 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2012 -
RELEASED
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 20, 2012
18 years after traveling to Arkansas to make a documentary about the gruesome murders of three young boys by alleged Satan-worshiping teenagers, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky bring their crusading story of the West Memphis Three to a miraculous conclusion with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. By Jason Guerrasio -
NYFF: WEST MEMPHIS 3 ON HAND FOR UNVEILING OF NEW “PARADISE LOST 3” ENDING
You probably know by now that the West Memphis 3 (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin) were released from prison after giving an Alford plea — a guilty plea but not admitting to the act and asserting innocence — in August. At the time directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were locking up their third film on the WM3, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, when they heard the news of the surprise development and raced down to Arkansas. Unable to put the footage of the three being freed in the film before screening it at the Toronto International Film […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 11, 2011
