 Despite a hectic schedule preparing for the commercial release of the film (it was first aired on HBO some months back), Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky put aside an hour of their time to chat with me about the astounding twists and turns this real-life story took and the emotional difficulties of putting it all on film. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.
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UD: The experience of filming must have been as hellish as the story itself.
BRUCE: Oh, from the minute we got there till the minute we left it was exhausting. It was one of these emotional roller coasters . . . The hatred that some people had, the love that some people had, the guilt that some people had, we had to deal with that every single day. And we were sponges. Because it's our job to soak up what's going on. UD: One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is the notion of one's sympathy. At first, your heart goes out profoundly, achingly, to the victims' parents, but then as you see some of their behavior, a disturbing shift begins to occur. BRUCE: Yes. Little by little, we started feeling sympathy for the accused. And I think by the end of the film, on a personal basis, we had much more sympathy for the accuseds' families than we did for the victims' families. And it wasn't that we forgot about the 8-year old boys. But if you are suffocated by hatred for 9 months, it's very difficult to actually embrace it and like someone. The Moores were an exception. I think we liked them always. And Pam Hobbs had her moments when she was truly grieving. But her attention to the media and her desire to be on camera was too much and after awhile it was troublesome to us. |
JOE: You have mixed feelings about some of the stuff you get. Sometimes as a human being you feel awful about what you are witnessing or what you are filming, you have empathy, or you have guilt, or whatever. But as a filmmaker, you're excited, because you're getting great stuff. And I'm always aware of that contradiction.
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JOE: For every hour of footage we shoot we have 20 hours of the experience of hanging out with people. We really invest a hell of a lot of time with people, building relationships, establishing trust. The most striking example in that area was the first day of the trial. The accused families' side was on one side, and the victims' families were on another side and it freaked everyone out at first that we literally had a relationship with everyone. I think seeing us actually interact with both sides in such a friendly manner was really weird for them. And it was weird for us because we saw that people were reacting. We'd go over and shake Jessie Misskelley, Sr.'s hand and we'd see Todd Moore looking at us like "I know you have to film him, but do you have to shake his hand?"
UD: Do you think the kids are innocent? JOE: There is a chance they killed them. But it certainly was not proven in that courtroom in due process. BRUCE: We don't believe that they got a fair trial. From the beginning the die had been cast. There was no way they were going to get a fair trial. That was what part of our story was. JOE: There were so many holes in this case. To me, the biggest one is no blood at the crime scene. You take 3 little 8-year old boys into the woods at dusk . . . they're bludgeoned, stabbed, raped, one kid had half his face beat in. It's inconceivable that these three teenagers could clean up that crime scene. But the film is not a mission to get the kids out of jail, per se. What we hope will come out of this film is an investigation and a new trial. UD: What's next for you guys? BRUCE: Dinner. No, we have a 3-picture development deal with HBO to continue making these types of film and we're researching a couple which we can't tell you about at this point. But it's safe to say that we love American sub-cultures and we view our type of films as stumbling upon an interesting rock and flipping it over. What's on the other side is so much more fascinating than what's on the surface. And I think we love the idea of looking at America's underbelly. We love the discovery.
UD: Thanks gentlemen. And congratulations. |
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