The 10 best quotes from Joe Berlinger's odd Bloomberg profile
Plus: Elizabeth Holmes, Vivica A. Fox, and more
the true crime that's worth your time
I wonder how Joe Berlinger feels about being referred to as “Netflix’s serial killer house band”? That’s what the dek writer for Bloomberg Businessweek called the influential documentarian/Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 director, a profile that’s worth the click for the B&W frowny-face portrait of Berlinger.
Reporter Joseph Bien-Kahn doesn’t bother to mention Berlinger for the first six grafs of his piece on Berlinger, but he does refer to Elisa Lam’s death as a “mysterious 2013 murder,” which might make you click “close tab” right there. After all, the piece has been up for five days (the dateline is 10/20), and that no one has corrected that yet suggests a certain lack of journalistic rigor, given that no one — not even Berlinger by way of his Crime Scene series for Netflix — seems to have any evidence she died of foul play.
So if you don’t feel like giving Bloomberg your email address to unlock the article, I understand, and relate! But Berlinger says a lot of strange things that are worth considering given his influence as a true crime icon. I’ve assembled some of the most notable quotes from this piece below, and am eager to hear what you think.
“Life is just a series of coincidences. It wasn’t like I was dying to do documentaries, per se.”
“There’s a term now at Netflix called the Bundy Bump, when you cover the same subject in scripted and unscripted.”
“I remember sitting down talking with Jason Baldwin. As he was talking, I looked at his tiny little wrists—this kid was very slight, and he had the tiniest little wrists—and I was trying to imagine him wielding a serrated hunting knife, which is what the prosecution alleged, and castrating one of the boys. It just didn’t seem right.”
“People keep calling me this true-crime pioneer. I like the pioneer part of the description. The crime thing? I think of myself as more than true crime. I think of myself as a social justice filmmaker, particularly in the criminal justice space.”
“You ask why I’m on the serial killer jag? Honestly, it’s because a whole bunch of circumstantial, coincidental factors that came together, and both shows went through the roof. And when you discover there’s a market for something, you continue.”
“If [the subjects of Paradise Lost] had been guilty or we hadn’t seen their innocence, the whole true-crime genre would be different. That sounds too boastful for me to say, but I think you could say that.”
“Run Mother Teresa against Dahmer, and see which one does better. Which one are you gonna pick, little boy? What’re you gonna pick for dinner?”
“It’s very important to me to inject the social justice elements. The Dahmer and Gacy stories are about prevailing attitudes towards gay people at the time allowing this killer to go free, racial prejudice. I really try to excavate those issues in telling the story instead of just wallowing in the tragedy of it all.”
“The fact that my daughters’ generation did not know the Ted Bundy story, I thought, ‘OK, it’s important to reintroduce the story to the next generation,’ because the lessons of Bundy can’t be repeated enough. Just because somebody looks and acts a certain way, just because somebody is charming and good-looking, it doesn’t mean you should trust them.”
“The bottom line is, we are in the entertainment business.”
Still intrigued? You can read the full piece on Bloomberg Businessweek. — EB
A rumor first floated in a Theranos-related reddit got some legs last week. “There's word out that Holmes is pregnant again ahead of her sentencing,” a redditor posted in August, and headlines last week appeared to confirm. “Elizabeth Holmes appears pregnant, expecting baby no. 2,” the NY Post proclaimed, while the local Fox affiliate wrote “Convicted Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, returns to court amid speculations she's pregnant.”
Anyone here who’s been asked when they’re due after a particularly satisfying meal likely feels a flash of sympathy for Holmes, and in general, I find “baby bump” coverage odious. I bring this up because there’s been an interesting narrative around the 38-year-old’s reproductive choices in general: when her trial was delayed so she could give birth, pundits claimed the move was a legal strategy; and the redditor I mention above followed their rumor with “If it's true, she must think it will help her case. I think it could backfire because it would be reckless to have another child when facing significant prison time.”
That’s a pretty cold claim, and I don’t know that it’s something we’d say about a man who, while awaiting sentencing, played a role in his partner’s pregnancy. And, yet, it does seem to be a factor in Holmes’s bid for a new trial, which hinges on a recent visit to her home from former Theranos staffer turned whistle blower/witness for the prosecution Adam Rosendorff. Rosendorff attempted to explain that visit in court last week, per the NYT:
On Monday, Dr. Rosendorff returned to the stand. Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw Ms. Holmes’s trial, asked whether Dr. Rosendorff’s testimony at the trial was truthful and whether the government had faithfully represented the facts. He testified affirmatively.
Then Lance Wade, Ms. Holmes’s lawyer, grilled him. Why did Dr. Rosendorff want to visit Ms. Holmes? Had Dr. Rosendorff had a mental breakdown that impacted his testimony? Was the government trying to make everyone look bad? Was Dr. Rosendorff seeking to help Ms. Holmes?
Dr. Rosendorff responded by accusing Ms. Holmes’s lawyers of trying to paint him as a liar. He said he felt sympathy for Theranos employees who were affected by the scandal — but not for Ms. Holmes and her co-conspirator, Ramesh Balwani. He added that he felt bad that Ms. Holmes’s children would grow up without a mother if she went to prison.
But according to Fox 2, Holmes’s alleged pregnancy played a role in his visit, too:
Holmes’ legal team was relying heavily on Rosendorff to help her avoid a prison sentence.
In August, her lawyers filed a motion for a new trial based on his alleged statements to Holmes’s partner, William Evans, that "he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everyone look bad" and felt "he had done something wrong," as stated by Evans in court filings.
On Monday, under questioning by Judge Davila, Rosendorff said that his testimony in the trial was truthful.
He said he felt remorseful about the possibility that Holmes’ young child with Evans would be without her mother if Holmes is sentenced to prison.
Rosendorff added, "It is my understanding she is pregnant again." Information about Holmes's possible pregnancy has not been verified.
And KRON4 has another quote from his testimony:
In the weeks and months following Elizabeth Holmes’ conviction, I felt increasingly distressed that a young child would spend the only years of their (childhood) without their mother. I learned that Ms. Holmes may be pregnant again.
Davila is expected to issue a ruling on a possible new trial within the next few weeks, but in the interim, Holmes’s sentencing remains on the books for November 18. Her convicted co-conspirator, Sunny Balwani, is scheduled for sentencing a few days before, on November 15 — he, too, attempted to leverage Rosendorff’s visit into a new trial, but that request has already been denied. — EB
The 1-800 Happy Birthday project has been transformed into an interactive art exhibit. I am pretty sure we’ve discussed this website before, but (say it with me) Substack’s search blows. So, to recap: Filmmaker Mohammad Gorjestani has made a career of projects about folks killed by the police, including a website featuring voicemails left for victims of police shootings.
Now he’s taken those voicemails and turned them into an installation at Bushwick’s WorthlessStudios.
The exhibition is a continuation of several projects Gorjestani has created on this subject over the years. After directing a series films about individuals killed in police encounters, Gorjestani developed "1-800 Happy Birthday" as a web project, inviting people to call a number and leave a message for a person killed by police on their “heavenly” birthday.
For the Brooklyn installation, those messages have been brought to the physical space. Each celebrant gets their own payphone adorned with their name. Photos provided by families fill the vitrines where advertisements traditionally appear. Each payphone rings when it's approached by a visitor, who's invited to listen to recorded messages or leave one of their own.
“The idea of this exhibition, and of the project in general, is to celebrate birthdays,” curator Klaudia Ofwona Draber said. “So it is to celebrate their lives. And with this exhibition, we want to show that they were more than the headline they appeared with at the moment of their death.”
The exhibit’s website has more:
Twelve upcycled NYC pay phones are arranged on a few patches of lawn, a concrete wall with a dedicated area for flowers hosts a large mural and balloons, and birthday cards are available for purchase at a newsstand. Towards the back of this city landscape is a translucent building facade with an opening that leads to an interior setting - a family living room. This room acts as a resource center: filled with photos, ephemera from the celebrants, and educational resources. It is also meant as a space of refuge, to rest and recharge. The exhibition design imagines a world that is just, where streets are safe for Black and Brown people to just be.
Each repurposed phone booth, designed in collaboration with the families of the celebrants, is dedicated to one person and features portraits of the celebrant and their family and friends. The visuals and ephemera included in the exhibition - such as Philando Castile’s favorite book and Xzavier Hill’s graduation cap - allow visitors a glimpse into the personal milestones, interests and personalities of those being honored. These objects, chosen by celebrant family members, illustrate the divide between private conversation and public space.
There’s also a mural and a Spotify playlist curated by the victims’ families.
1-800 Happy Birthday runs through January 16, 2023 at WorthlessStudios (7 Knickerbocker Ave., Brooklyn), 12-8 Thursdays, 12-6 Fridays-Sundays. — EB
Is Vivica A. Fox attempting to destroy the system from the inside? That’s what Sarah hopefully posited last week when she mentioned Fox’s new hosting gig on The Interrogation Room, a true crime show that, per the Hollywood Reporter, “follows real homicide detectives as they try to elicit confessions.”
Fox drops a press release quote that suggests, as Sarah put it, that the show is pretty blatant propaganda, saying “I have long been a fan of true crime and have been particularly fascinated by the techniques law enforcement utilizes in trying to elicit a confession. I know crime show enthusiasts like me and even aspiring law enforcement officers are going to love this show.”
That the show’s marketing is targeting wannabe cops seems to say it all, as does promoting an upcoming show on elicited confessions without acknowledging their deeply problematic nature. The NAACP — which has granted Fox a number of awards — has some helpful information Fox might be interested in on how the interrogations she’s touting target people from historically and systemically marginalized groups; her show, which will stream on FilmRise (beats me!), is set to launch in 2023. — EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: A Halloween thread!
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