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April 23, 2020

Kristin Smart · Dieorama · Virtual True Crime

Also: A true crime family...curse?

the true crime that's worth your time

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Dieorama (short): Abigail Goldman, an investigator for the Washington state Public Defender's office, spends her nights crafting intricate dioramas depicting grisly crime scenes. This documentary delves into her ornate and "bloody" hobby. Director: Kevin Staake
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5:17 PM ∙ Apr 21, 2020
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I can’t wait to watch this movie about crime-scene crafting. In a lengthy series of tweets, Amazon’s Prime Video service announced a partnership with SXSW to present viewers with “a limited collection of shorts, features, and docs” for ten days, starting on Monday, April 27. There are loads of offerings from around the world (you can see the whole thread here), but “Dieorama,” a short film about Abagail Goldman, whose interest in creating (imaginary) crime scenes as dioramas has captured the attention of reporters and writers for nearly a decade. (Her husband’s Reddit post on her hobby did monster traffic back in the day.)

In an interview from last March, Goldman — who began her life of crime as a reporter and now works in criminal justice — says, “I do have a story behind each dieorama—and I really resist telling them. Everyone has a bit of a detective in them, I think, and people are eager to decode and deconstruct the small scenes. In many ways, what you see in a dieorama can be a bit of a Rorschach test. Any interpretation is partly a reflection of the viewer.” — EB


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