While corporate consolidation has led to smaller documentary production budgets and fewer indie doc sales, the demand for true-crime docus has skyrocketed over the last few years.
That’s good news for documentary production companies like Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus’ Story Syndicate. This year, Garbus, Cogan and Story Syndicate’s head of documentary and nonfiction, Jon Bardin, have produced three true-crime documentaries: Hulu’s “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” Netflix’s” Take Care of Maya” and HBO’s “Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York.”
About a string of murders in 1990’s Manhattan, “Last Call,” like “Stolen Youth” and “Take Care of Maya,” has become a hit with audiences and critics alike. (The final episode in the four-part series air on July 30.)
Variety spoke with Bardin, Cogan and Garbus about what they are looking for in a true-crime project and what they steer...
That’s good news for documentary production companies like Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus’ Story Syndicate. This year, Garbus, Cogan and Story Syndicate’s head of documentary and nonfiction, Jon Bardin, have produced three true-crime documentaries: Hulu’s “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” Netflix’s” Take Care of Maya” and HBO’s “Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York.”
About a string of murders in 1990’s Manhattan, “Last Call,” like “Stolen Youth” and “Take Care of Maya,” has become a hit with audiences and critics alike. (The final episode in the four-part series air on July 30.)
Variety spoke with Bardin, Cogan and Garbus about what they are looking for in a true-crime project and what they steer...
- 7/28/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Season 4 finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” streaming now on Hulu.
Writer, producer and director Liz Garbus is adamantly opposed to the death penalty, something she has explored in such documentaries as “The Execution of Wanda Jean” dating back to 2002. Yet, for her scripted television directorial debut, the fourth season finale of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” she delivers an episode that carries out such a sentence.
While the idea “does go against a larger principle I have,” Garbus tells Variety, “they’re very different situations.”
Certainly the biggest difference is that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is fictional — and fantastical in some ways — and was not setting out to validate such retribution for a crime. In the episode, entitled “The Wilderness,” former Gilead Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes) cuts a deal to turn over secrets about how that new “government” works...
Writer, producer and director Liz Garbus is adamantly opposed to the death penalty, something she has explored in such documentaries as “The Execution of Wanda Jean” dating back to 2002. Yet, for her scripted television directorial debut, the fourth season finale of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” she delivers an episode that carries out such a sentence.
While the idea “does go against a larger principle I have,” Garbus tells Variety, “they’re very different situations.”
Certainly the biggest difference is that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is fictional — and fantastical in some ways — and was not setting out to validate such retribution for a crime. In the episode, entitled “The Wilderness,” former Gilead Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes) cuts a deal to turn over secrets about how that new “government” works...
- 6/16/2021
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
A special standalone episode of HBO’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” a 2020 docuseries exploring late writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation into the dark world of the violent predator she dubbed “The Golden State Killer,” will debut Monday, June 21 at 10/9c on HBO.
Here’s the installment’s lengthy description, courtesy of HBO:
“In the summer of 2020, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, also known as the Golden State Killer, was sentenced to life in prison for the 50 home-invasion rapes and 13 murders he committed during his reign of terror in the 1970s and ‘80s in California. Many of the survivors and victim’s family members featured in the series reconvened for an emotional public sentencing hearing in August 2020, where they were given the opportunity to speak about their long-held pain and anger through victim impact statements, facing their attacker directly for the first time and bringing a sense of...
Here’s the installment’s lengthy description, courtesy of HBO:
“In the summer of 2020, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, also known as the Golden State Killer, was sentenced to life in prison for the 50 home-invasion rapes and 13 murders he committed during his reign of terror in the 1970s and ‘80s in California. Many of the survivors and victim’s family members featured in the series reconvened for an emotional public sentencing hearing in August 2020, where they were given the opportunity to speak about their long-held pain and anger through victim impact statements, facing their attacker directly for the first time and bringing a sense of...
- 5/21/2021
- by Jennifer Maas
- The Wrap
Coronavirus stay-at-home orders dramatically impacted television viewing habits, driving up consumption of just about every genre of programming, including documentary. The resulting huge audience numbers and media attention generated by Tiger King and The Last Dance could give those nonfiction series a leg-up as Emmy voters prepare to mark their nomination ballots.
Tiger King, the seven-part series on “murder, mayhem and madness” in the eccentric world of big cat breeders and private zoo operators, dropped on Netflix March 20, just as lockdown orders were being imposed across much of the U.S. Director Eric Goode is the first to say people moored in their homes, TV remote in hand, helped turn the series into a cultural phenomenon.
“I do think we all must assume that that’s part of it,” Goode states. “For sure.”
Tiger King is contending for Emmy nominations in multiple categories, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. It...
Tiger King, the seven-part series on “murder, mayhem and madness” in the eccentric world of big cat breeders and private zoo operators, dropped on Netflix March 20, just as lockdown orders were being imposed across much of the U.S. Director Eric Goode is the first to say people moored in their homes, TV remote in hand, helped turn the series into a cultural phenomenon.
“I do think we all must assume that that’s part of it,” Goode states. “For sure.”
Tiger King is contending for Emmy nominations in multiple categories, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. It...
- 6/26/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
A few days before “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” was set to premiere on HBO, the six-part docuseries based on Michelle McNamara’s book of the same name about the hunt for, survivors of and eventual arrest of the Golden State Killer still wasn’t finished.
“If there is some finality in terms of his journey through the criminal justice system, then we want to be able to share that with our audience,” executive producer and co-director Liz Garbus tells Variety.
Garbus and her directing team that also includes Elizabeth Wolff, Josh Koury and Myles Kane weaved a detailed tale half set in the world of Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer who was arrested in 2018 for crimes committed decades earlier, and half set in the world of McNamara’s investigation into who the perpetrator could be. McNamara’s part of the story has a definitive end: The...
“If there is some finality in terms of his journey through the criminal justice system, then we want to be able to share that with our audience,” executive producer and co-director Liz Garbus tells Variety.
Garbus and her directing team that also includes Elizabeth Wolff, Josh Koury and Myles Kane weaved a detailed tale half set in the world of Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer who was arrested in 2018 for crimes committed decades earlier, and half set in the world of McNamara’s investigation into who the perpetrator could be. McNamara’s part of the story has a definitive end: The...
- 6/26/2020
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
Amazon Studios has acquired worldwide rights to a currently “untitled voting rights documentary” from production company Story Syndicate. The documentary, which prominently features insights from politician, lawyer and author Stacey Abrams, is directed by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lisa Cortés. Currently in post-production, the timely film is produced by Garbus, Cortés, Academy Award-winning producer Dan Cogan and Abrams. The documentary is slated for release on Amazon Prime Video this year with a theatrical run prior.
The documentary examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election. The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has challenged our democracy from the very beginning. With the perspective and expertise of Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary will offer an insider’s...
The documentary examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election. The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has challenged our democracy from the very beginning. With the perspective and expertise of Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary will offer an insider’s...
- 6/19/2020
- by Mike Tyrkus
- CinemaNerdz
Amazon Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to an untitled documentary about voting rights that prominently features politician Stacey Abrams, the studio announced Wednesday.
Oscar nominee Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés (“Precious”) are directing the film that’s currently in post-production. Amazon will give the film a theatrical release at some point this year ahead of the 2020 election and will then release the film on Amazon Prime Video.
The documentary examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election. The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has corrupted our democracy from the very beginning.
Also Read: Stacey Abrams to Produce CBS Drama Based on Her Romance Novel 'Never Tell'
With the perspective and expertise of Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary will offer...
Oscar nominee Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés (“Precious”) are directing the film that’s currently in post-production. Amazon will give the film a theatrical release at some point this year ahead of the 2020 election and will then release the film on Amazon Prime Video.
The documentary examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election. The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has corrupted our democracy from the very beginning.
Also Read: Stacey Abrams to Produce CBS Drama Based on Her Romance Novel 'Never Tell'
With the perspective and expertise of Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary will offer...
- 6/17/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
The most shocking thing that Liz Garbus saw during the course of making “Who Killed Garrett Phillips?” was when Nick Hillary, the man being tried for Phillips’s murder, chose to have a bench trial (tried before a judge) rather than a jury trial. “All of his lawyers were advising him against it. They told him with 12 jurors, all you need is one to say, ‘I don’t think he did it.’ But with one judge, you have to convince 100% of that one judge,” she details in our recent webchat (watch the video above).
But Hillary remained convinced that his best shot at a fair trial that would be based on the evidence and not on emotion would be the bench trial. “His lawyers felt like [they] had just lost. This man is going to prison. It’s over. And Nick insisted and it’s his decision. I had never seen...
But Hillary remained convinced that his best shot at a fair trial that would be based on the evidence and not on emotion would be the bench trial. “His lawyers felt like [they] had just lost. This man is going to prison. It’s over. And Nick insisted and it’s his decision. I had never seen...
- 5/22/2020
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
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