#SXSW: “CONFRONTING A SERIAL KILLER”

Review by Mr. Will Wong

Premiering as part of SXSW 2021‘s Episodic Programme, the first episode of Starz‘s CONFRONTING A SERIAL KILLER gets an unveiling at the Festival. Produced and directed by Joe Berlinger, the five-episode Docu-Series centers on Writer Jillian Lauren as she sets out to seek the truth about one of America’s most notorious Serial Killers, Sam Little. Confident that Little committed more than the three murders he was convicted of in 2014. She gets clearance to visit him in prison and she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.

The Series precedes the release of Lauren‘s upcoming book about her sessions with Sam Little, titled  Exit Sandman: The True Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer. Little often targeted prostitutes, whose murders often have been dismissed. Their bodies discarded like trash. Despite having a shockingly-long rap sheet, Little walked free from his crimes and Lauren knows because he is responsible because he told her.

The story goes a layer deeper where we learn of Lauren‘s own experience with domestic violence and at the heart of the Series is a deep desire to learn why this happens and why it is the justice system has continually failed to protect women, more specifically sex workers. Lauren bravely tells her own story with a raw vulnerability in tandem with the unpeeling of layers surrounding this decades-long mystery surrounding Little and his victims, those accounted for and not.

Truly gripping storytelling and this should be on your radars as it has something important to say.

CONFRONTING A SERIAL KILLER premieres on Starz on Sunday, April 18, 2021.