Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner was granted unprecedented access to the Brockville facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries: the first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community. The second film, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to profile four patients, two men and two women, as they struggle to gain control over their lives so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.
In 2006, millionaire Charlotte Böhringer (†59) was found beaten to death in her penthouse flat above the Isar car park in Munich. Her nephew Benedikt Toth was convicted of murder for greed and sentenced to life imprisonment for a particularly serious offence. The verdict was controversial from the outset as it was based solely on circumstantial evidence. The instrument of the offence could not be identified.
The documentary tells the story of Júlio César, a young Afro-Brazilian who was executed by the Police in the 1980s in Porto Alegre. The crime became notorious when the press published photos of Julius being put alive in the police car and arriving 37 minutes later shot and dead at the hospital.
Stories from survivors frame this documentary detailing the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein.
In 1970s California, a serial killer dumps young boys' bodies along the freeways. An L.A. street reporter on the case receives information that embroils him in the dilemma of a lifetime. Decades later, lost confession tapes help experts uncover the truth.
In The Family I Had, a mother recalls how her brilliant teenage son came to shatter their idyllic family through one horribly violent and shocking act. Now, left to pick up the pieces, the survivors test the boundaries of their newly defined reality in this moving true crime exploration of the nature and limits of familial love.
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.
A short mockumentary detailing the rise of intergenerational cosmetic theft through the eyes of an affected family.
Outlawed in Pakistan tells the story of Kainat Soomro as she takes her rape case to Pakistan's deeply flawed court system in hopes of getting justice. The 13-year-old Kainat accuses four men of gang rape and shortly after is ordered to be killed by her village elders. Spanning over five years, the story is told through the perspective of Kainat and the four men accused of her rape.
Kim Kardashian West works to shine a light on stories of people she believes have paid their debt to society while also bringing awareness to America’s growing problem with mass incarceration.
Silent Verdict is a hard-hitting human rights documentary that exposes the injustice surrounding rape cases in Bangladesh. Through powerful re-enactments and survivors’ own testimonies, it revisits five infamous cases that shook the nation yet remain unresolved. Legal experts and doctors reveal the deep loopholes in law and medicine that fail victims, while data and research underscore the scale of the crisis. Balancing stark revelations with a vision for change, Silent Verdict is both an unflinching confrontation of truth and a call to action for justice.
A startling expose of rape crimes on US campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. The film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue—despite incredible push back, harassment and traumatic aftermath—both their education and justice.
With access to family, neighbours and professionals who knew Michael Donovan, this is the story of the man who abducted 9-year-old Shannon Matthews in 2008 and kept her in his flat for 24 days before she was found in a dramatic rescue by the police.
A look at one of Scotland’s most high-profile murder trials, the brutal killing of Dr Brenda Page. It was part of the Scottish criminal justice system’s 45-year quest for answers.
On the 12th November 1976, Renee MacRae, a glamorous 36-year old mother of two and wife of a wealthy building firm owner, vanished after leaving her home in Inverness. Later that night, Renee’s burnt out BMW was found in a lay-by on the roadside of the A9. Neither she nor her three-year-old son Andrew have ever been seen again.
On 9 July 1996, three bodies were found in a little leafy copse beside a country lane in Chillenden, Kent. Dr Lin Russell, 45, and her two daughters, Megan, six and Josie, nine, had all suffered brutal head injuries caused by a blunt instrument. They had been tied up and their family dog, Lucy, was also found dead nearby.
Amanda Knox served four years in an Italian prison for the murder of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007, always insisting on her innocence. In 2011, she was acquitted on the basis of DNA evidence but prosecutors successfully appealed and her acquittal was struck down. In 2014 she was again found guilty in absentia after a retrial and sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail. The saga came to and end when Italy's highest court overturned the convictions of Ms Knox and her former boyfriend, Italian student Raffaele Sollecito in March 2015. Known burglar Rudy Guede was arrested a short time later following the discovery of his bloodstained fingerprints on Kercher's possessions. He was later found guilty of murder in a fast-track trial and is currently (as of 2019) serving a 16-year prison sentence.
Jan Broberg and her family tell the unbelievable story of how she survived two kidnappings and years of childhood sexual abuse by a family friend.
The case of a missing mother reveals twisted family secrets that leave a trail of flames, arrests and deaths in their wake.
Two children accused parents and teachers of leading a paedophilic satanic cult, supposedly headquartered in secret rooms on the school premises. The story was not true. But once the fire was lit, it was hard to put out. Emily Turner’s film considers the real-world impact of an outrageous online conspiracy theory, exploring the importance of truth and the cost of lies.