How Stephen Maing Made The Powerful Hulu Documentary Crime + Punishment
Film Courage: Steve, before you set out to make a film do you ask yourself what will the audience for this movie want? Or is this not really a filmmaker’s job to ask that question?
Stephen Maing, filmmaker of CRIME + PUNISHMENT: It all depends on the story. In the case of CRIME + PUNISHMENT this was a story I felt begged of this idea of bearing witness because I felt early on that if we couldn’t bring the viewer as close to these moments that the officers (NYPD 12) were living through and talking about and try to shed light on that, people might not believe these claims.
That’s where this great gift of observational filmmaking can unlock storytelling because of this idea that if you stick around long enough you gain access to very unexpected kinds of moments and also the layers of truth start to reveal themselves. Whereas in the beginning you may be seeing moments that speak on an issue level that might have interested you early on. By the end of filming it, the process, the relationship with the subjects that you’re filming, all of that gets so intimate that you are inadvertently…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
ABOUT CRIME + PUNISHMENT
Amidst a landmark class action lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment chronicles the real lives and struggles of a group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and the young minorities they are pressured to arrest and summons in New York City. A highly intimate and cinematic experience with unprecedented access, Crime + Punishment examines the United States’ most powerful police department through the brave efforts of a group of active duty officers and one unforgettable private investigator who risk their careers and safety to bring light to harmful policing practices which have plagued the precincts and streets of New York City for decades.
WATCH CRIME + PUNISHMENT
Hulu.com/watch/1323868
CONNECT WITH STEPHEN MAING
Crimeandpunishmentdoc.com
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