Joe Berlinger is a documentarian known in part for his social-justice focused work around the criminal justice system. Along with Bruce Sinofsky, Joe co-directed HBO’s incredible three-film documentary series Paradise Lost, about the child murders in Robin Hood Hills, and the unfair trial and imprisonment of the teenaged boys known as the West Memphis Three. Joe has also directed several other films in the genre of crime, his first film, Brother’s Keeper in 1992, is a haunting and nuanced film about the trial of Delbert Ward who was falsely accused of killing his brother. The film attempted dispel harmful stereotypes about poor rural life, and to give voice to those who hadn’t had a chance to speak their truth.
Joe’s documentary works that focus on the crime and the justice system are, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger, Gone: The Forgotten Women of Ohio, The System with Joe Berlinger on Aljazeera.
Now Joe has a new series out on the Sundance Channel called Cold Blooded, which explores the murder of the Clutter Family in 1959, the case that Truman Capote covered in his novel In Cold Blood, credited as the work that created the modern genre of true crime. Joe is a filmmaker who cares deeply about the communities he enters, and his films find seek to find not only justice, but also to to reveal emotional truths of his subjects.
Check out the first part of Cold Blooded, out Saturday November 18th on the Sundance Channel.
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