Starz Announces New Original Docuseries ‘Confronting a Serial Killer’ From Emmy(R)-Winning Filmmaker Joe Berlinger
Set to make its world premiere at the annual SXSW Film Festival in March, “Confronting a Serial Killer” will premiere this spring on Starz in the U.S.
Santa Monica, Calif – January 14, 2021 – Starz announced today a new original docuseries “Confronting a Serial Killer,” executive produced and directed by Oscar(R)-nominated and Emmy(R)-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger (The Paradise Lost Trilogy, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes”) with Po Kutchins (“The Murder of Laci Peterson,” “Prison Town, USA,” “The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth”) serving as showrunner and executive producer. The five-episode series tells the timely story of the unprecedented relationship between acclaimed author and journalist Jillian Lauren and the most prolific serial killer in American history, Sam Little, and her race against time to identify his victims before it’s too late (Little recently died in prison at the age of 80, after avoiding justice for his crimes for decades).
Through the perspectives of Lauren and several female investigators, survivors and victims’ family members, “Confronting a Serial Killer” shines a light on systemic issues in the criminal justice system including bias against marginalized communities, particularly women of color, and those struggling with addiction, mental illness, and trauma. The docuseries is produced by Lionsgate Television, Third Eye Motion Picture Company and RadicalMedia.
Set to make its world premiere at the annual SXSW Film Festival in March, “Confronting a Serial Killer” will premiere this spring on STARZ in the U.S. and Canada, and will air day and date on the Starzplay international streaming service across Europe, Latin America and Japan.
“It was important to me and everyone working on this project that we put into focus the truly devastating impact that bias in our justice system can have on underrepresented groups, particularly women of color,” said Berlinger. “We follow Jillian in her dogged pursuit of justice for some of Sam’s victims and the loved ones they left behind, giving those that had largely been forgotten voice, name and identity.”
In “Confronting a Serial Killer,” New York Times best-selling author and memoirist Jillian Lauren (‘Some Girls: My Life in a Harem’) uncovers Sam Little’s darkest secrets and aids law enforcement in solving a multitude of cold case murders targeting marginalized communities, particularly women of color, while struggling to reconcile her own history of addiction and abuse with her present-day mission to return the identities of previously nameless bodies and forgotten women. As she slips deeper into his sordid world, Jillian realizes that she may become, psychologically, Little’s last victim.
Also serving as executive producers on the project are Jon Doran and Jon Kamen. Senior Vice President, Head of Unscripted Programming Alice Dickens-Koblin is the executive overseeing “Confronting a Serial Killer” on behalf of Starz and Lionsgate.
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