TRUE CRIME ETHICS
I ACQUIRE LOTS OF official documents AND REACH OUT TO those closest to the victim ”
to participate. I think Sharon ultimately wanted to make sure Laci’s voice was at the centre of our documentary and that’s why she decided to sit down for an interview in the end. I’m really happy she did because she brings such an important message of survival, grief, joy and persistence into the narrative.” For Borgman, there are many challenges when working on true crime shows, including reaching out to people to see if they want to be public. “Also striking the right balance with the project, building trust with participants and delivering on my word because any given film isn’t exclusively in my hands – I have production companies and networks giving notes and exploring all the possible narrative threads. There are deep conversations going on about character arcs, plot points, timing and tone. It really rests with me to find a way to make it all work and deliver films that families will be proud of, which are also factually accurate.”
can encourage audiences to become amateur sleuths, which can lead to the spread of misinformation and, in extreme
Rick Milewski, who edited episode 1 of the show, has worked across numerous true crime shows, including Homicide , Waco: American Apocalypse , The Last Narc and Kids Behind Bars: Life or Parole . “What’s interesting about true crime docs is that we sometimes end up omitting elements because it makes for a better story,” he explains. “However, that’s often a struggle; we have lots of deep discussions about what makes the story move forward and whether that’s doing injustice to any of the subjects involved. Are these facts salient or is it information that’s just not important? A lot of the time, as an editor, I’ll just be handed a bunch of material and be told to shape a story out of it. That can be really vague, so it’s about finding out what that story is going to be.” With Laci Peterson’s story, Milewski wanted to come at it without any bias at all. “Of course, you’re still working for a streaming service. They’re very concerned about keeping eyeballs on
instances, false accusations. HONOURING THE VICTIMS
American Murder: Laci Peterson is a 2024 Netflix miniseries that delves into a murder case from 2002. “I’m very interested in telling stories that are victim-forward, so I start by asking myself if a project has a story that I feel is one I want to explore,” says Skye Borgman, director of the miniseries. “I always try to acquire as many official documents as I can and reach out to those closest to the victim. “With this particular story, we reached out to Laci’s mum Sharon, Laci’s best friends and Scott Peterson’s sisters immediately. Sharon didn’t want to participate in the documentary at first. It’s hard because doing an interview brings up a lot of emotions, and I understand why people wouldn’t want
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