| Director: | Alex Gibney |
|---|---|
| Production: | Jigsaw Productions (Ophelia Harutyunyan, Erin Edeiken, Alex Gibney, Joey Marra) |
| Running Time: | 118’ |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | USA |
| Main Cast: | Dorothy Lewis, Richard Burr, Catherine Yeager, Park Dietz, Bill Hagmaier, Laura Dern |
| Cinematographer: | Ben Bloodwell |
| Editor: | Andy Grieve |
| Music: | Will Bates |
| Sound: | Tony Volante |
| Visual Effects: | Elastic, Aaron Hodgins Davis |
| Note: | 14+ |
|---|
Why do we kill? Why do some of us kill, and others resist the temptation? What makes a serial killer? Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a psychiatrist who’s examined numerous serial killers, including Ted Bundy, sought to answer these questions. Her research videotapes, seen here for the first time, show evidence of multiple personalities formed from childhood trauma. Fascinated by the human capacity for ruthlessness, Lewis is a different kind of homicide detective, less interested in what happened than why.
This film was an opportunity to try to understand why we, as human beings, kill each other, through the work of Dorothy Lewis. As I spent more time with Dorothy, I became interested in her as a scientist and an artist, whose literary voice we explore almost as a separate “alter.” In making the film, we found a crazyquilt style—using cinema verité, archive, animation, home movies—that playfully mirrors the magnificent complexity of the human mind. The title Crazy, Not Insane refers to the way that the legal system—framed too often by a sense for justice that veers into a need for revenge—conflicts with the world of medical science in defining grave mental illness. We use Dorothy’s involvement with death penalty cases to examine the sanity of the death penalty itself. Once we have dangerous killers locked away and the public is protected, why are we so determined to execute these human beings? Are Americans serial killers? And, if so, are we crazy, if not insane?
PRODUCTION: Ophelia Harutyunyan, Erin Edeiken, Alex Gibney, Joey Marra - Jigsaw Productions
26 Broadway, Ste 1301
10004 – New York, United States of America
Tel. +1 2123523010
crazynotinsane@jigsawprods.com
www.jigsawprods.com
WORLD SALES: Andrew Shipps - Warner Bros. International Television
98 Theobalds Road
London WC1X 8WB
Tel.: +44 207 984 5000
Fax: +44 207 984 5211
Andrew.Shipps@warnerbros.com
https://www.warnerbros.co.uk/
ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: Andrew Shipps - Warner Bros. International Television
98 Theobalds Road
London WC1X 8WB
Tel.: +44 207 984 5000
Fax: +44 207 984 5211
Andrew.Shipps@warnerbros.com
https://www.warnerbros.co.uk/
PRESS OFFICE: Hayley Hanson, Mikyla Baker - HBO
30 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001
Tel. +1 212-512-1660
Hayley.hanson@hbo.com
Mikyla.Baker@hbo.com
