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Casting JonBenet

Panorama Dokumente 2017
© Netflix / Michael Latham
The truth about a murder is usually difficult to grasp. The question is: which is better, a documentary or a fictional approach? In Casting JonBenet director Kitty Green attempts to use both approaches at the same time. The unsolved death of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has preoccupied the American public for twenty years. Under the pretext of searching suitable actors for a feature film about this mysterious case, Kitty Green invites everyone in the girl’s Colorado home town community who had contact with the Ramsey family. In screen tests the diverse protagonists reveal their version of the truth, which becomes increasingly complex as the film progresses. Filmed on a set, the film’s documentary sections are juxtaposed with carefully dramatised fictional scenes until the various portrayals would appear to form a single truth. Truth has many facets, and the fictional dramatisation of the real story displaces the memories. All is not what it would at first appear to be.
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by Kitty Green USA / Australia 2017 English 81’ Colour Documentary form

Crew

Written and Directed by Kitty Green
Cinematography Michael Latham
Editing Davis Coombe
Music Nathan Larson
Sound Design Sam Petty
Sound David Schaaf
Production Design Leah Popple
Costumes Catharina Schürenberg
Make-Up Ming Min Luftig
Casting Annie Hamilton, Brian McCulley
Assistant Director Tom Farnsworth
Production Manager Tara Hunter
Producers Kitty Green, Scott Macaulay, James Schamus
Executive Producers Jennifer Dong, Figo Li, Avy Eschenasy, Adam Del Deo, Jihan Robinson, Lisa Nishimura
Co-Producer Mitch Dickman
Co-Production Listen Productions Denver

Produced by

Matricide Pictures

Forensic Films

Symbolic Exchange

Photos

Kitty Green

© Ty Johnson

Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1984, the director, writer, producer and co-editor studied film and television at the Victorian College of the Arts. Her documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, about the activities of the feminist movement Femen, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, screened at over 50 festivals worldwide and won the AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary. The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul won the Short Film Jury Prize for Non-Fiction at Sundance and screened in the 2015 Berlinale Generation while Casting JonBenet featured in the 2017 Berlinale Panorama.

Filmography

2013 Ukraine Is Not A Brothel; documentary · Ukraine Is Not A Brothel 2015 The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul; short film, Generation · The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul; IFB Generation 2017 Casting JonBenet · Casting JonBenet; documentary, Panorama 2019 The Assistant; Panorama

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020