A collection of five enthralling crime-focused documentary films from HBO. Each title goes beyond the sensational headlines to explore the human toll on all sides of a crime and delves deep into the internal and external worlds of perpetrators, victims, and survivors.
Directed and produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, Crazy, Not Insane follows Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a psychiatrist who has dedicated her career to studying murderers and seeking answers as to why people kill. The film explores her lifelong attempts to look beyond the grisly details of homicides and into the hearts and minds of the killers themselves. The documentary film highlights Dr. Lewis’ research, videotaped death row interviews, and the formative experiences and neurological dysfunction of infamous murderers such as Arthur Shawcross and Ted Bundy, to challenge the notion that murderers are made and not born. Narrated by actress Laura Dern, Crazy, Not Insane also explores the death penalty itself, questioning whether or not it is actually a deterrent to violence and asking an important question: Once dangerous killers are locked away and the public is protected, why is society so determined to execute these human beings?
Who is D.B. Cooper? This roller-coaster ride of a documentary brings to life the stories of four individuals fervently believed by their family and friends to be the mystery man who hijacked a 727, exchanged passengers for $200,000 and four parachutes, then leaped from the plane over some of Washington state's roughest terrain, and was never heard from again.
A shocking examination of the work of a Las Vegas fertility specialist, the late Dr. Quincy Fortier, who assisted hundreds of couples struggling with difficulty conceiving and the many women he guided to pregnancy through the use of his own sperm without their knowledge or consent. The documentary follows several of his offspring as they grapple with new information about their origins, the scope of Fortier’s misdeeds, and the impact his genes have on how they view their own identities.
A documentary exploring the story of October 4, 1991, when a violent crime was reported in the sleepy town of Scottsboro, Alabama. Glenn Summerford, a Pentecostal minister, was accused of attempting to murder his wife with a rattlesnake. The details of the investigation and the trial that followed have haunted Southern Appalachia for decades. Featuring local historian and folklorist Dr. Thomas Burton, who has spent his life studying the culture, beliefs, and folklore of Pentecostal snake handlers, the film paints a Southern Gothic portrait of Glenn Summerford and his tale of demon possession.
The film tells the story of the 1998 murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi, which stunned a country ravaged by decades of political violence. Just two days after presenting a damning report blaming the atrocities of the civil war on the Guatemalan military, Bishop Gerardi was found dead in his home. Fearing a cover-up, the church assembles a team of young investigators to take on the case. They begin to unearth a web of conspiracy and murder, entangling the upper echelons of the government.