This research project will focus on Casting JonBenet (2017) to analyse how, why and with what effect, real-life stories and situations are used as the basis of their film and/or TV work. The following critical and theoretical approaches “Fictional filmmaking methods in nonfiction” and ‘Re-enactment and Truth’ will be employed.
Casting JonBenet (2017) is a documentary film directed by Kitty Green that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on the 22nd of January 2017, releasing to the public via Netflix on the 29th of April 2017. The film takes a unique approach to telling the story of the real-life cold case surrounding the death of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado during Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 1996. The film had strong reviews from critics (albeit weaker audience reviews), with the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus stating that its “unorthodox approach to its genre sets it apart in a crowded field, making for a uniquely thought-provoking true crime documentary hybrid.”(Rotten Tomatoes, 2023).
Documentary (and subsequently documentary film) is an ever-changing format that never truly sits within a set of rules, with John Greirson describing the word itself as “clumsy” and “a swell word for a simple thing”(Greirson, s.d cited in Fox, 2008) whilst also giving the word its standard definition of “the creative treatment of actuality”(Grierson, s.d. cited in Kerrigan and McIntyre, 2014) - similarly, fiction filmmaking struggles to define its films more and more as time goes on, as the blend of genres and the creation of new subgenres causes films to be billed as multiple different things at once (taking Scream 4 as an example, if made 70~ years ago would only be categorised as Horror and potentially Horror Comedy, is now categorised under at least 6 different genres and subgenres; Horror, Comedy, Slasher, Mystery, Teen, Thriller, and Self Referential / Meta). This definition really helps us to understand what a documentary is and truly can be, with emphasis and priority over the fact that creativity comes first in the telling (or retelling) of reality – especially in the case of Casting JonBenet (2017) which truly does feel like it prioritises the creativity over actuality. Elizabeth Cowie even goes as far to say that the crossover between documentary filmmaking and Hollywood fiction filmmaking was inevitable from the very start as “Recorded reality re-presented is a reenactment of the past as a making present again of places, people, and events, to an audience, but because it is extracted from ongoing reality, it thereby distorts by becoming exemplary, standing in for but also excluding – as unrecorded – other views and other people.”(Cowie, 2011:21) stating that there is always an inherent blend of fictional filmmaking aspects within a documentary product, even if completely unintended – which again is a perfect example for Casting JonBenet (2017), a film that doesn’t just have that inevitable element of Hollywood fiction filmmaking in its product but actually actively chooses to utilise fiction throughout. Documentary filmmaking as a whole is a rather hard form to deal with as the lines between reality and fiction often become blurred once you turn on the camera, with Jane Gaines saying of the subject and its focus at the University of Minnesota that “To return to documentary is to return again to cinematic realism and its dilemmas. To look back at film theory from the 1950s to the 1970s is to think about the way cinematic realism, first heralded as a technological triumph, became a philosophical problem.”(Gaines, c1999:1-2), something that the director even states came into account when shooting Casting JonBenet (2017), with the actors in the interview segments of the film clearly ‘performing’ for the camera; “It was kind of intentional; but we were surprised by how organic the process was and how people just natural wanted to tell their own stories to make sense of this case”(Krupp, 2017), with these people knowing they are being recorded (and also, obviously, wanting to win their desired roles) they are no longer based in reality as they are speaking with the intent of gaining repour with the filmmakers to ensure their parts in the film – again blurring the line of what truly is ‘actuality’ within documentary as a whole.
The film was made for two specific reasons; one being to portray and recreate elements of the real life crime that occurred surrounding the death of JonBenét Ramsey, and another reason being to receive this information directly from the people who lived in the Boulder, Colorado area at the time whilst also allowing them to tell their individual stories as they audition for the roles in the film - although it is unclear how much of each element was originally intended to be part of the overall film and likely that the intended ratio of interview to re-enactment was altered in post-production. The film gathers all of its information that is given to audiences through the cast members of the film itself, who are all currently auditioning for different people directly involved in the real-life case (whether that be JonBenét’s parents, brother, an officer involved, or JonBenét herself) – with multiple sets of cast members portraying each real life character in the re-enactment sections of the film – the filmmakers choose to not look for the factual information available from police departments etc., and instead builds its entire story through the information given to them in the audition process from the actors themselves – some of which information has personal bias within, some having missing information, and some just being factually incorrect entirely. One source even states that the film “departs from former trends in reenactment by moving beyond any attempt to capture a multiplicity of accounts centred on the case”(Francis and Hussein, 2017:32-41), claiming that the film does not even attempt to capture and retell the potential different scenarios that may have occurred (with the film itself also not stating any of the likelihoods of said possible scenarios) and instead just recreating accounts of what these unaffiliated people may believe – negating fact almost entirely to instead create multiple semi-fictionalised version of events, almost as if to only entertain an audience.
Despite the fact that Casting JonBenet (2017) is billed as a documentary film in the True Crime genre, the director actually claims it to be anything but, saying; “We don’t consider it true crime”(Krupp, 2017). As filmmaking techniques develop over the years, the emergence of new genres, subgenres, and the ever-expanding number of blended genres give filmmakers new ways to produce the exact type of documentary they desire, and audiences’ new ways of consuming these stories. Casting JonBenet (2017) is an interesting film that somehow tries its very best to be anything but a True Crime documentary film, yet somehow still sits comfortably into that category. Although different from each other, as documentary film has evolved it has begun borrowing elements from traditional Hollywood fiction filmmaking techniques as stated in Visual Communication Quarterly in reference to the documentary filmmakers themselves; “these new-style documentarians have adapted Hollywood practices to documentary filmmaking”(Cook and Vos and Prager and Hearne, 2015:15-33). It is quite evident that Casting JonBenet (2017) employs some Hollywood fiction techniques both in its narrative and the creative decisions as a whole. The films narrative is truly split in two throughout its runtime, almost like a short fiction film has been split up throughout a documentary – the majority of the film is interview based with the people who are auditioning for the roles of real people involved in the cold-case, with brief interludes (sometimes with the interviews audio overlapping) of the ‘re-enactments’ performed by and crafted by the actors’ opinionated stories.
Casting JonBenet (2017) is one of those cases that is a little bit clearer to see the blatant use of Hollywood fiction filmmaking techniques, which (especially in the 21st century, and progressively over time in that period) – with documentary films’ narratives becoming more and more like that of Hollywood fiction films’, and the visuals (mostly due to the upgrade and ease of access to technology) also doing the same, with Judy Huffman from the University of Chicago saying “It’s kind of like documentaries have this contract with the audience that other don’t that what you see is real. [but] Every film is a construction.” continuing with “”Casting JonBenet” just tends to show its construct more conspicuously than others.”(Merry, s.d.). There are two specific elements of Hollywood fiction filmmaking that stood out to me within Casting JonBenet (2017), one of which being these brief interludes of its separate fictionalised ‘re-enactments’. Another documentary film in a similar style to Casting JonBenet (2017) is Stories We Tell (2012) directed by Sarah Polley. Although this film doesn’t build its fictionalised ‘recreations’ around the multiple opinions of multiple unrelated people, Stories We Tell (2017) similarly uses ‘re-enactment’ for its flashback elements – the difference with this film is that it instead lets its audience figure out that the so called ‘archive footage’ is actually all recreation with a cast of actors hired to play to real life people involved in the documentaries story, shot with a Super-8 camera to give the (extremely strong) element of illusion.
Casting JonBenet (2017) is a documentary film directed by Kitty Green that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on the 22nd of January 2017, releasing to the public via Netflix on the 29th of April 2017. The film takes a unique approach to telling the story of the real-life cold case surrounding the death of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado during Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 1996. The film had strong reviews from critics (albeit weaker audience reviews), with the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus stating that its “unorthodox approach to its genre sets it apart in a crowded field, making for a uniquely thought-provoking true crime documentary hybrid.”(Rotten Tomatoes, 2023).
Documentary (and subsequently documentary film) is an ever-changing format that never truly sits within a set of rules, with John Greirson describing the word itself as “clumsy” and “a swell word for a simple thing”(Greirson, s.d cited in Fox, 2008) whilst also giving the word its standard definition of “the creative treatment of actuality”(Grierson, s.d. cited in Kerrigan and McIntyre, 2014) - similarly, fiction filmmaking struggles to define its films more and more as time goes on, as the blend of genres and the creation of new subgenres causes films to be billed as multiple different things at once (taking Scream 4 as an example, if made 70~ years ago would only be categorised as Horror and potentially Horror Comedy, is now categorised under at least 6 different genres and subgenres; Horror, Comedy, Slasher, Mystery, Teen, Thriller, and Self Referential / Meta). This definition really helps us to understand what a documentary is and truly can be, with emphasis and priority over the fact that creativity comes first in the telling (or retelling) of reality – especially in the case of Casting JonBenet (2017) which truly does feel like it prioritises the creativity over actuality. Elizabeth Cowie even goes as far to say that the crossover between documentary filmmaking and Hollywood fiction filmmaking was inevitable from the very start as “Recorded reality re-presented is a reenactment of the past as a making present again of places, people, and events, to an audience, but because it is extracted from ongoing reality, it thereby distorts by becoming exemplary, standing in for but also excluding – as unrecorded – other views and other people.”(Cowie, 2011:21) stating that there is always an inherent blend of fictional filmmaking aspects within a documentary product, even if completely unintended – which again is a perfect example for Casting JonBenet (2017), a film that doesn’t just have that inevitable element of Hollywood fiction filmmaking in its product but actually actively chooses to utilise fiction throughout. Documentary filmmaking as a whole is a rather hard form to deal with as the lines between reality and fiction often become blurred once you turn on the camera, with Jane Gaines saying of the subject and its focus at the University of Minnesota that “To return to documentary is to return again to cinematic realism and its dilemmas. To look back at film theory from the 1950s to the 1970s is to think about the way cinematic realism, first heralded as a technological triumph, became a philosophical problem.”(Gaines, c1999:1-2), something that the director even states came into account when shooting Casting JonBenet (2017), with the actors in the interview segments of the film clearly ‘performing’ for the camera; “It was kind of intentional; but we were surprised by how organic the process was and how people just natural wanted to tell their own stories to make sense of this case”(Krupp, 2017), with these people knowing they are being recorded (and also, obviously, wanting to win their desired roles) they are no longer based in reality as they are speaking with the intent of gaining repour with the filmmakers to ensure their parts in the film – again blurring the line of what truly is ‘actuality’ within documentary as a whole.
The film was made for two specific reasons; one being to portray and recreate elements of the real life crime that occurred surrounding the death of JonBenét Ramsey, and another reason being to receive this information directly from the people who lived in the Boulder, Colorado area at the time whilst also allowing them to tell their individual stories as they audition for the roles in the film - although it is unclear how much of each element was originally intended to be part of the overall film and likely that the intended ratio of interview to re-enactment was altered in post-production. The film gathers all of its information that is given to audiences through the cast members of the film itself, who are all currently auditioning for different people directly involved in the real-life case (whether that be JonBenét’s parents, brother, an officer involved, or JonBenét herself) – with multiple sets of cast members portraying each real life character in the re-enactment sections of the film – the filmmakers choose to not look for the factual information available from police departments etc., and instead builds its entire story through the information given to them in the audition process from the actors themselves – some of which information has personal bias within, some having missing information, and some just being factually incorrect entirely. One source even states that the film “departs from former trends in reenactment by moving beyond any attempt to capture a multiplicity of accounts centred on the case”(Francis and Hussein, 2017:32-41), claiming that the film does not even attempt to capture and retell the potential different scenarios that may have occurred (with the film itself also not stating any of the likelihoods of said possible scenarios) and instead just recreating accounts of what these unaffiliated people may believe – negating fact almost entirely to instead create multiple semi-fictionalised version of events, almost as if to only entertain an audience.
Despite the fact that Casting JonBenet (2017) is billed as a documentary film in the True Crime genre, the director actually claims it to be anything but, saying; “We don’t consider it true crime”(Krupp, 2017). As filmmaking techniques develop over the years, the emergence of new genres, subgenres, and the ever-expanding number of blended genres give filmmakers new ways to produce the exact type of documentary they desire, and audiences’ new ways of consuming these stories. Casting JonBenet (2017) is an interesting film that somehow tries its very best to be anything but a True Crime documentary film, yet somehow still sits comfortably into that category. Although different from each other, as documentary film has evolved it has begun borrowing elements from traditional Hollywood fiction filmmaking techniques as stated in Visual Communication Quarterly in reference to the documentary filmmakers themselves; “these new-style documentarians have adapted Hollywood practices to documentary filmmaking”(Cook and Vos and Prager and Hearne, 2015:15-33). It is quite evident that Casting JonBenet (2017) employs some Hollywood fiction techniques both in its narrative and the creative decisions as a whole. The films narrative is truly split in two throughout its runtime, almost like a short fiction film has been split up throughout a documentary – the majority of the film is interview based with the people who are auditioning for the roles of real people involved in the cold-case, with brief interludes (sometimes with the interviews audio overlapping) of the ‘re-enactments’ performed by and crafted by the actors’ opinionated stories.
Casting JonBenet (2017) is one of those cases that is a little bit clearer to see the blatant use of Hollywood fiction filmmaking techniques, which (especially in the 21st century, and progressively over time in that period) – with documentary films’ narratives becoming more and more like that of Hollywood fiction films’, and the visuals (mostly due to the upgrade and ease of access to technology) also doing the same, with Judy Huffman from the University of Chicago saying “It’s kind of like documentaries have this contract with the audience that other don’t that what you see is real. [but] Every film is a construction.” continuing with “”Casting JonBenet” just tends to show its construct more conspicuously than others.”(Merry, s.d.). There are two specific elements of Hollywood fiction filmmaking that stood out to me within Casting JonBenet (2017), one of which being these brief interludes of its separate fictionalised ‘re-enactments’. Another documentary film in a similar style to Casting JonBenet (2017) is Stories We Tell (2012) directed by Sarah Polley. Although this film doesn’t build its fictionalised ‘recreations’ around the multiple opinions of multiple unrelated people, Stories We Tell (2017) similarly uses ‘re-enactment’ for its flashback elements – the difference with this film is that it instead lets its audience figure out that the so called ‘archive footage’ is actually all recreation with a cast of actors hired to play to real life people involved in the documentaries story, shot with a Super-8 camera to give the (extremely strong) element of illusion.
Fig. 1: Screengrab of re-enactment of archival footage filmed in Super-8 in Stories We Tell (2017)
This time more related to Hollywood fiction, the Scream franchise (which I would like to say as a horror franchise sits adjunct to true crime in documentary film) also likes to play with this trope in the sequel Scream 4 (2011) with its traditional opening murder scene being immediately revealed to the audience that it is actually the in-universe film ‘Stab 6’ (a staple of the self-referential franchises sequel’s), followed directly by a second opening murder scene which itself is again then revealed as the in-universe film ‘Stab 7’, intentionally misdirecting the audience for a second time. In all 4 sequels an instalment of the in-universe ‘Stab’ franchise has been seen to different lengths and at different stages of the film but this particular instalment uses the ‘film within a film’ trope to specifically and actively deceive its audience – although with different intentions, Kitty Green utilises the ‘film within a film’ segments that Hollywood fiction uses in abundance in comparison to non-fiction documentaries, and (to a degree, unintentionally) also tricks the audience into believing that the re-enactment segments are based in fact rather than the opinions of the actors auditioning and subsequently performing. The other specific element from Hollywood fiction filmmaking that Casting JonBenet (2017) utilises is the ‘jump scare’ / ‘shock horror’ technique – again heavily used in horror, and almost never used in non-fiction documentary. Although less of a ‘jump scare’ and much more of a ‘shock horror’ technique, Casting JonBenet (2017) abruptly cuts one of its interviews to a scene depicting the actors portraying Burke Ramsey (JonBenét’s older brother) bludgeoning watermelons with a flashlight (to imitate the opinionated description of how Burke may have contributed to JonBenét’s death). This scene catches the audience off guard in a shocking and quite disturbing way, leaving you not even knowing what to think before it moves on to its next scene. Again, differently to how Hollywood fiction filmmaking utilises the technique, instead eliciting a reaction different to that of a fictional ‘shock horror’ or ‘jump scare’, causing a different form of discomfort than a fiction film would give you. I also find this rather morally wrong as well due to it being a true crime documentary and, more specifically, because it is a cold case.
Whilst watching the film itself, it was abundantly clear that the filmmaker chose to display certain aspects on her own accord rather than from the actors’ stories or any direct facts – two specific scenes really stood out to me. The first scene came directly after a discussion on the possibility of Burke Ramsey directly causing her death by bludgeoning her with a flashlight, with one of the actors portraying Patsy Ramsey (JonBenét’s mother) saying “I don’t think he would have the strength to do something like that”(Casting JonBenet, 2017), then cutting to a small montage of all of the actors portraying Burke using flashlights to bludgeon watermelons – it is clear that these actors did not bring the watermelons and flashlights on their own accord (unless, unknown to the audience, they were all asked prior to filming – which is unlikely) which as an audience member was quite disturbing and rather unnecessary to see, portraying both the actors themselves that performed, the children’s parents, and the filmmakers themselves in quite a negative way.
Whilst watching the film itself, it was abundantly clear that the filmmaker chose to display certain aspects on her own accord rather than from the actors’ stories or any direct facts – two specific scenes really stood out to me. The first scene came directly after a discussion on the possibility of Burke Ramsey directly causing her death by bludgeoning her with a flashlight, with one of the actors portraying Patsy Ramsey (JonBenét’s mother) saying “I don’t think he would have the strength to do something like that”(Casting JonBenet, 2017), then cutting to a small montage of all of the actors portraying Burke using flashlights to bludgeon watermelons – it is clear that these actors did not bring the watermelons and flashlights on their own accord (unless, unknown to the audience, they were all asked prior to filming – which is unlikely) which as an audience member was quite disturbing and rather unnecessary to see, portraying both the actors themselves that performed, the children’s parents, and the filmmakers themselves in quite a negative way.
Fig. 2: Screengrab of a child bludgeoning a watermelon with a flashlight in Casting JonBenet (2017)
The second scene closes off the film with multiple sets of the actors’ simultaneously re-enacting potential outcomes of the scenario, closing the film off with the knowledge that the case is still a cold-case and that all these scenarios are still unknown and taken from the opinions of these actors – a scene which overall was pretty much unnecessary considering the point of the documentary.
Fig. 3 Re-enactment of multiple scenarios all at once in Casting JonBenet (2017)
When it comes to documentary filmmaking, one of the most important aspects to consider is the ethics behind what you are making – especially when centred around real people, and even more so when it comes to true crime. One book detailing documentary filmmaking even says that “It is important to stress that the issue of gathering of testimony in documentary is one of the key issues present in current filmmaking”(Piotrowska, 2014:138). Casting JonBenet (2017) has a lot of issues when it comes to its ethics, for multiple different reasons. It is currently unknown if the Ramsey family were involved in the making of this film, and if so to what capacity. The film also chooses to portray the actors’ opinions as potential fact (never really emphasising the power of word of mouth that comes from regular people not knowing entire stories and facts, and their opinions / bias’s seeping through in their individual retellings) which is not only unethical and immoral considering the still somewhat ongoing cold case but to further that, this film was produced and released on Netflix during a time where True Crime was making a substantial increase in the viewfinder of casual audiences - not only would people look up ‘True Crime’ on Netflix (and other outlets) but on top of that, the Netflix algorithm will recommend anything in the true crime category if that is what you are currently watching despite the potential quality of the product and the fact that this film is a lot more (purposely) opinionated rather than directly true crime. By instead telling the versions of stories handed to them by the ‘actors’ rather than direct fact, the filmmakers “demonstrate the diffuse and resonant meanings that high-profile crimes produce in the public imagination through individual forms of internalization, reflection, critique, uncertainty, disavowal, etc.”(Francis and Hussein, 2017:32-41) – due to the filmmaker allowing the actors to tell their opinionated stories however they seem fit (adding in their own hyper-personal stories too, seemingly to increase their chances of getting their desired role) and solely using this information to form the narratives of the film “slicing their remarks into soundbites” and “not because the people in the film are stupid but because Green condenses their remarks, to the catchiest, kickiest, strangest, most intimate, isolating them from their context and emphasising their humour, their irony, their weirdness, their incongruity.”(Brody, 2017), openly choosing to edit around both the actors’ intimate and detailed stories about themselves and their perception on the JonBenét case, all to mould a satisfying yet inaccurate and somewhat fictionized narrative for the film. Although we won’t know for sure if it was the director’s intent to manipulate the actors and edit in the way that was done in the released film, it is rather clear that (even unintentionally) the film did end up being rather exploitative to both the memory of JonBenét Ramsey, her family, and the actors involved in the film, with Green even mentioning that “It was kind of intentional that we wanted people to talk about this stuff, but we were surprised by how organic the process was and how people just naturally wanted to tell their own stories to make sense of this case”(Krupp, 2017) The filmmaker actively choosing to tell the story through the eyes and (almost) through the imagination of people who had heard about the case already causes a somewhat fictionalised multitude of potential events, but “slicing their remarks” and “isolating them from their context”(Brody, 2017) truly disconnects the little ounces of truth from this real life, heart breaking story, in service of instead very literally editing a story in a way that seems fit for a feature Hollywood fiction film.
Another aspect to consider in regard to ethics in documentary filmmaking, something I have briefly spoken about already, is the inclusion (or lack of) correct information and facts at the time of production. Something that can occur (and does in a lot of cases) whilst making documentary films, especially in ongoing and cold cases, is evidence and facts changing during production. Other sources of information on the JonBenét Ramsey case have used police reports and interviews solely from people directly involved in the case itself to build the most accurate representation possible at the time given the information at hand, rather than the opinionated piece that Casting JonBenet (2017) chooses to be. Although rather unethical (to a degree) to hand out this information when it is a cold case with new evidence emerging occasionally, in comparison to Casting JonBenet (2017) these sources do not intentionally omit all of the factual information known at the time in replacement for the opinions of regular people. The filmmaking team behind Casting JonBenet (2017) actively choose to mould their narrative, using these opinions, into a satisfactory story rather than just presenting the facts of the case – Green even states that the intent was never to make a true crime documentary (instead looking at the people engulfed in the narrative within the town) saying; “What we’re trying to do is look at or examine a community that has lived in the shadow of this media storm for the past 20 years, and how they have come to terms with a crime that’s basically unsolvable,” and instead deciding to appease audiences and her own love for true crime, continuing; “That was our interest. We don’t consider it true crime. I mean, it touches on true crime. And it touches on our appetite for true crime and how we’re all obsessed with it. That’s sort of more what we’re interested in than the case itself”(Krupp, 2017). I find this rather unethical in both a production standpoint (as it actively chooses to not focus on the case and its known facts and evidence), and from a distribution standpoint (whether or not that was algorithmic, an active choice from Netflix who are known to push content to audiences via categories, or a choice from the filmmakers themselves) as it gives the audience an eschewed view on the case and actually does not give them direct facts.
The active choice to use these opinionated stories as the basis for the re-enactment segments of Casting JonBenet (2017) is more blatant in this particular film than other documentaries of its kind, but overall can be found across documentary films of all types – with both; the people handing over the information (whether or not we are meant to take their words as given facts or not, which is mostly irrelevant when considering that most sources will have intentional or unintentional biases either way) and the filmmakers themselves choosing what ends up in the documentary (also whether or not they choose to manipulate the footage, and if so intentionally or unintentionally). When it comes down to actually crafting these films and/or series’, Juan Ramón Muñoz-Torres claims that Truth and Objectivity in Journalism (a similar form to documentary film, some even viewing it as its timely predecessor) is “An Insufficiently Defined Concept” saying that “This is a complex issue, which, being at the core of journalism, is related to many others and as such it can be addressed from many different perspectives”(Muñoz-Torres, 2012:566-582). Really expressing that not only is the truth of journalism (and subsequently documentary film) much more objective than the consumer truly realises, but this truth can also be viewed and examined in multiple different ways, with there being multiple different intents also going into the making – the director even states, in regards to the factual elements of documentary films, and specifically those that employ a fiction element to them like Casting JonBenet (2017) does, that; “For me, the films that appear to be less fictional are just doing a better job at hiding their fictional aspects”(Merry, s.d.), almost justifying her purposeful decision to showcase the fiction within the true crime documentary film the filmmakers produced by stating that if they were to hide the fiction it would appear even more evidently – so instead embraces it in a rather immoral and unethical way considering the nature of the cold case the film is based around.
In conclusion I find that the filmmakers never intended to fully showcase facts of the titular case when making Casting JonBenet (2017) and instead chose to showcase the ‘truth’ of those performing in the film. Despite the not so obvious intention to do so to its audience, Casting JonBenet (2017) succeeds in telling its objective truth to the audience without actually being explicit enough for that to be realised at times. It’s Hollywood fiction approach becomes more and more evident as the runtime goes on, especially when considering the gross amount of so called ‘re-enactment’ segments in the film that intentionally misleads its audience into believing that the documentary feature is in fact true crime when considering that the director actively stated that she herself didn’t even claim the film as a true crime documentary – partnering this with its Netflix distribution (both being pushed in a certain direction by the streaming service and the algorithm as a whole) and then also pairing that with the audience’s growing demand for true crime documentaries at the time and years following, Casting JonBenet (2017) truly succeeds in its intention to make a Hollywood fiction style documentary showcasing the objective truths of those who are not qualified to talk on the matter, and the curious nature that people have when it comes to cold cases, true crime, and conspiracy in this particular area.
Another aspect to consider in regard to ethics in documentary filmmaking, something I have briefly spoken about already, is the inclusion (or lack of) correct information and facts at the time of production. Something that can occur (and does in a lot of cases) whilst making documentary films, especially in ongoing and cold cases, is evidence and facts changing during production. Other sources of information on the JonBenét Ramsey case have used police reports and interviews solely from people directly involved in the case itself to build the most accurate representation possible at the time given the information at hand, rather than the opinionated piece that Casting JonBenet (2017) chooses to be. Although rather unethical (to a degree) to hand out this information when it is a cold case with new evidence emerging occasionally, in comparison to Casting JonBenet (2017) these sources do not intentionally omit all of the factual information known at the time in replacement for the opinions of regular people. The filmmaking team behind Casting JonBenet (2017) actively choose to mould their narrative, using these opinions, into a satisfactory story rather than just presenting the facts of the case – Green even states that the intent was never to make a true crime documentary (instead looking at the people engulfed in the narrative within the town) saying; “What we’re trying to do is look at or examine a community that has lived in the shadow of this media storm for the past 20 years, and how they have come to terms with a crime that’s basically unsolvable,” and instead deciding to appease audiences and her own love for true crime, continuing; “That was our interest. We don’t consider it true crime. I mean, it touches on true crime. And it touches on our appetite for true crime and how we’re all obsessed with it. That’s sort of more what we’re interested in than the case itself”(Krupp, 2017). I find this rather unethical in both a production standpoint (as it actively chooses to not focus on the case and its known facts and evidence), and from a distribution standpoint (whether or not that was algorithmic, an active choice from Netflix who are known to push content to audiences via categories, or a choice from the filmmakers themselves) as it gives the audience an eschewed view on the case and actually does not give them direct facts.
The active choice to use these opinionated stories as the basis for the re-enactment segments of Casting JonBenet (2017) is more blatant in this particular film than other documentaries of its kind, but overall can be found across documentary films of all types – with both; the people handing over the information (whether or not we are meant to take their words as given facts or not, which is mostly irrelevant when considering that most sources will have intentional or unintentional biases either way) and the filmmakers themselves choosing what ends up in the documentary (also whether or not they choose to manipulate the footage, and if so intentionally or unintentionally). When it comes down to actually crafting these films and/or series’, Juan Ramón Muñoz-Torres claims that Truth and Objectivity in Journalism (a similar form to documentary film, some even viewing it as its timely predecessor) is “An Insufficiently Defined Concept” saying that “This is a complex issue, which, being at the core of journalism, is related to many others and as such it can be addressed from many different perspectives”(Muñoz-Torres, 2012:566-582). Really expressing that not only is the truth of journalism (and subsequently documentary film) much more objective than the consumer truly realises, but this truth can also be viewed and examined in multiple different ways, with there being multiple different intents also going into the making – the director even states, in regards to the factual elements of documentary films, and specifically those that employ a fiction element to them like Casting JonBenet (2017) does, that; “For me, the films that appear to be less fictional are just doing a better job at hiding their fictional aspects”(Merry, s.d.), almost justifying her purposeful decision to showcase the fiction within the true crime documentary film the filmmakers produced by stating that if they were to hide the fiction it would appear even more evidently – so instead embraces it in a rather immoral and unethical way considering the nature of the cold case the film is based around.
In conclusion I find that the filmmakers never intended to fully showcase facts of the titular case when making Casting JonBenet (2017) and instead chose to showcase the ‘truth’ of those performing in the film. Despite the not so obvious intention to do so to its audience, Casting JonBenet (2017) succeeds in telling its objective truth to the audience without actually being explicit enough for that to be realised at times. It’s Hollywood fiction approach becomes more and more evident as the runtime goes on, especially when considering the gross amount of so called ‘re-enactment’ segments in the film that intentionally misleads its audience into believing that the documentary feature is in fact true crime when considering that the director actively stated that she herself didn’t even claim the film as a true crime documentary – partnering this with its Netflix distribution (both being pushed in a certain direction by the streaming service and the algorithm as a whole) and then also pairing that with the audience’s growing demand for true crime documentaries at the time and years following, Casting JonBenet (2017) truly succeeds in its intention to make a Hollywood fiction style documentary showcasing the objective truths of those who are not qualified to talk on the matter, and the curious nature that people have when it comes to cold cases, true crime, and conspiracy in this particular area.
Illustrations:
- Fig. 1 Re-enactment of archival footage filmed in Super-8 in Stories We Tell (2017) [Screengrab, Vimeo] In: Stories We Tell. Canada: Mongrel Media. At: https://vimeo.com/246715565 (Accessed 26/01/2023)
- Fig. 2 A child bludgeoning a watermelon with a flashlight in Casting JonBenet (2017) [Screengrab, Netflix] In: Casting JonBenet. US: Netflix. At: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80142316?trackId=255824129&tctx=0%2C0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2Cunknown%2C%2C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393%7C1%2CtitlesResults%2C80142316%2CVideo%3A80142316(Accessed 26/01/2023)
- Fig. 3 Re-enactment of multiple scenarios all at once in Casting JonBenet (2017) [Screengrab, Netflix] in Casting JonBenet. US: Netflix. At https://www.netflix.com/watch/80142316?trackId=255824129&tctx=0%2C0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2Cunknown%2C%2C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393%7C1%2CtitlesResults%2C80142316%2CVideo%3A80142316(Accessed 26/01/2023)
Bibliography:
- Brody, R (2017) ‘“Casting JonBenet”: A documentary that unintentionally exploits its participants’ at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/casting-jonbenet-a-documentary-that-unintentionally-exploits-its-participants (Accessed 17/01/2023)
- Casting JonBenet (2017) Directed by Green, K. [Netflix] at: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80142316?trackId=255824129&tctx=0%2C0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2CNAPA%40%40%7C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393_titles%2F1%2F%2Fcasting%20jon%2F0%2F0%2Cunknown%2C%2C328ccc5e-ac6e-4bd8-a628-05fc3c7f8183-51285393%7C1%2CtitlesResults%2C80142316%2CVideo%3A80142316(Accessed 20/01/2023)
- Cook, R, Vos, T, Prager, B & Hearne, J (2015) ‘Journalism, Politic, and Contemporary Documentaries: A “Based on a True Story” Dossier’ in: Visual Communication Quarterly 22 (1) pp. 15-33
- Cowie, E (2011) ‘Chapter 1 – Narrating the Real: The Fiction and the Nonfiction of Documentary Storytelling’ in: Recording reality, desiring the real. US: University of Minnesota Press [pp. 21]
- Fox, J (2008) ‘John Grierson (1898-1972)’ at: https://griersontrust.org/assets/files/articles/john-grierson-jo-fox.pdf (Accessed 25/01/2023)
- Francis, M and Hussein, L (2017) ‘Off the Record: Reenactment and intimacy in Casting JonBenet’ in: Film Quarterly (71) pp. 32-41
- Gaines, J (c1999) ‘Introduction “The Real Returns”’ in: Collecting Visible Evidence 6 pp. 1-2
- Kerrigan, S & McIntyre, P (2014) ‘The ‘creative treatment of actuality’: Rationalizing and reconceptualising the notion of creativity for documentary practice’ in: Journal of Media Practice 11 (2) pp. 111-130
- Krupp, E (2017) ‘Chatting with Kitty Green, director of ‘Casting JonBenet’ documentary’ at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/redeye/ct-redeye-interview-kitty-green-director-casting-jonbenet-documentary-20170327-story.html (Accessed 23/01/2023)
- Merry, S (s.d:32) ‘Documentaries like ‘Casting JonBenet’ mix fact and fiction, which just makes them more honest’ at: https://eu.enterprisenews.com/story/entertainment/2017/04/30/documentaries-like-casting-jonbenet-mix/21264302007/ (Accessed 25/01/2023)
- Muñoz-Torres, J (2012) ‘TRUTH AND OBJECTIVITY IN JOURNALISM: Anatomy of an endless misunderstanding – An Insufficiently Defined Concept’ in: Journalism Studies 13 (4) pp. 566-582
- Piotrowska, A (2014) ‘Chapter 6 – The ethics of documentary: Respecting the silence of the other’ in: Psychoanalysis and ethics in documentary film. UK: Routledge [pp. 138]
- Rotten Tomatoes (2023) Casting JonBenét (2017) at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/casting_jonbenet (Accessed 19/01/2023)
- Scream 4 (2011) Directed by Craven, W. [DVD] US: The Weinstein Company
- Stories We Tell (2012) Directed by Polley, K. [DVD] Canada: Mongrel Media