The Killing Season
The Killing Season from Executive Producer Alex Gibney follows documentarians, Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills as they investigate one of the most bizarre unsolved serial killer cases of our time -- ten dead sex workers discovered on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. Authorities believe these killings are the work of the Long Island Serial Killer, who after five years remains at large. Forging relationships with cyber-sleuths, journalists and victim's families, Zeman and Mills uncover connections that suggest Long Island is just the beginning.
Interview with Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills
Congratulations! Why did you make your docuseries?
Thanks! We intended this project to be a feature documentary focusing on the Gilgo Beach murder investigation but after months of research that led us to eerily similar cases, we decided to open it up to a series. You see, the victims in all of the cases we look into were sex workers. We didn’t realize just how many unsolved serial murder cases there were out there in which the victims were in the sex industry, it’s really astounding. Looking further, we discovered just how difficult these cases are to solve and so we really wanted to delve into that territory, WHY were these cases still unsolved.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this docuseries?
True crime programming is a huge industry now, there’s a whole channel dedicated to shows like Wives with Knives, show that simply rehash crimes for pure entertainment. That is not what we are trying to do. Yes, we look a individual cases and as tragic as they are, there’s also another layer to these crimes, broken systems. We believe that our data is being uploaded to come centralized database 24/7 and that crimes can be solved in 30 mins to an hour, that’s what television has taught us – that’s simply not true. Our federal databases for homicide are fragmented; law enforcement agencies are not even mandated to report their homicide data to ViCAP, the federal database for violent crimes. The “CSI Effect” has lulled us into this false sense of security that crimes can and will be solved quickly and easily. That’s just not the case.
In addition, it’s important for the victims of these cases to not be forgotten, each of us contribute to a society in which sex workers are too often deemed as sub-human. It’s important to realize these women were mothers, daughters, sisters… they deserve justice just as much as anyone else.
How do personal and universal themes work in your docuseries?
This was a personal journey for us, it was important to take the audience through these cases and for the audience to feel the immediacy, like they were on the journey with us. For me, Rachel, it was difficult for it not to be personal, you get to know the families, friends… I was affected along the way, you’ll see it on camera, it was very hard from me to separate myself as a person and a filmmaker, the emotional person usually won out.
How have the script and series evolved over the course of their development and production?
As I mentioned, this project was going to be a feature doc, once we started filming we believed it would be a disservice to stay in Long Island, so we branched out to look at other similar cases across the country. We used Websleuths.com to look further down the rabbit hole, they were great in telling us about other cases we should look at. That the cases had connections… and what we discovered was that all these cases were connected just not in the way we all thought. There’s no super-duper serial killer responsible for all these murders, but there are systems at place for many of these killers to get away with murder.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
So far, so good. I’m proud of the feedback we’ve received so far in how we handle the victims' stories, and the families. I was nervous about that. I wanted to make sure we were as respectful as possible and didn’t make these women out to be one-dimensional, that they were so much more than sex workers which so many simply portray them as.
Also, I encourage people to keep watching, we start out on a granular level with the cases, but towards episode 5 & 6, really branch out to show the real horror, that these crimes are taking place across America and tragically they are very difficult to solve but there are things we can do as a society to make law enforcement more accountable, treat victims with respect, and be educated on the current inadequacies of our federal databases.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I’m looking forward to hearing the audience’s feedback, our premiere is November 12th so come back and ask me after! I have no problem being challenged, I hope to be surprised, challenged, and learn from he viewers!
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Reaching an even broader audience.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this docuseries’s message?
Those are all very important people/roles. For us in particular journalists played a huge role in our story telling. It was important to reach out to journalists in each city we visited and ask, “ok, we know generally about the case, but tell us what’s the real story hear, what couldn’t you put in your articles, how has the story evolved?”
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this docuseries to have?
I’d like people to feel compelled to others about the show, not just because they enjoyed it but because they learned something, were frustrated by what they learned, and want to do something themselves. That could be viewers going on websleuths.com to get involved in these cases online.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this docuseries?
How can I, as a citizen, help to put pressure on those in power to mandate that homicide data be reported to ViCAP?
Interview: November 2016
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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The Killing Season
The Killing Season from Executive Producer Alex Gibney follows documentarians, Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills as they investigate one of the most bizarre unsolved serial killer cases of our time -- ten dead sex workers discovered on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. Authorities believe these killings are the work of the Long Island Serial Killer, who after five years remains at large. Forging relationships with cyber-sleuths, journalists and victim's families, Zeman and Mills uncover connections that suggest Long Island is just the beginning.
Length: 8 hour long episodes
Director: Joshua Zeman
Executive Producers: Alex Gibney, Rachel Mills, Joshua Zeman
About the writer, director and producer:
Joshua Zeman has been at the forefront of the true crime genre for the past decade. His critically acclaimed horror documentary CROPSEY, a critic’s pick with The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Roger Ebert, was called “one of the year’s best documentaries” and “one of the scariest films of the year” in 2011. Off the success of CROPSEY, Zeman created KILLER LEGENDS for NBC Universal, an anthology series that examines true crimes that have inspired our scariest urban legends. Premiering as both the #1 downloaded documentary and horror film on iTunes in July of 2014, KILLER LEGENDS has since become one of the most watched true crime documentaries on both Netflix and Hulu.
As a narrative writer, Zeman received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship as well as the 2013 San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Award for his screenplay, Collider. As a producer/co-producer, some of Zeman’s past credits include THE STATION AGENT (Audience Award and Screenwriting Award, Sundance Film Festival), MYSTERIOUS SKIN (Venice Film Festival, nominated for IFP Gotham Award), THE HAWK IS DYING (Sundance Film Festival, Directors Fortnight, Cannes) and AGAINST THE CURRENT (Sundance Film Festival). Zeman was also the recipient of the Sundance Creative Producing Fellowship.
Rachel Mills began her career in filmmaking at the much-lauded Edit Center, in New York City. As Director of The Edit Center, Mills selected and shepherded such documentary and narrative films as: WINTER'S BONE, GREGORY CREWDSON: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS, and GARBAGE DREAMS. In 2010, Mills moved into producing with A MATTER OF TASTE, a feature documentary profiling famed chef Paul Liebrandt, which premiered on HBO. TASTE won a James Beard Award and also garnered an Emmy nomination.
In 2013, Mills partnered with award-winning filmmaker Joshua Zeman to produce and co-star in KILLER LEGENDS, a documentary investigating true crimes that have inspired our scariest urban legends. Most recently, Mills produced MAVIS!, a documentary on gospel/soul music legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family singing group, the Staple Singers. The film received critical acclaim after its SXSW premiere in 2015, being named “one of the best music documentaries of this decade” by Paste Magazine. HBO picked up the film soon after and in February of 2015, MAVIS! had its broadcast premiere.
Continuing to explore their unique perspective of “real life horror,” Zeman and Mills developed THE KILLING SEASON for A&E, an investigation into the terrifying connections between five unsolved serial killer cases. Executive produced by Jigsaw Productions and Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Taxi to the Dark Side).
Key cast: Rachel Mills & Joshua Zeman
Funders: A&E
Made in association with: Jigsaw Productions & Gigantic Pictures
Release date: November 12th, 2016