While the work of a documentarian is always focused on the subject at hand, there are a few filmmakers in the genre who might be as famous as the work/stories/subjects they're documenting.
On this note, plenty of people will be familiar with the name of Alex Gibney.
The Oscar-winning director made the incredible No Stone Unturned which detailed the events that unfolded on 18 June 1994 in the village of Loughinisland, Co Down when three gunmen burst into a pub with assault rifles and killed six people while wounding others.
The shootings occurred while the patrons watched Ireland play Italy at USA '94.
Aside from that exceptional feature, Gibney has also made Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief, Taxi To The Dark Side, The Armstrong Lie, and countless other brilliant features.
Well, Gibney will be taking a unique approach to the true crime genre in his next documentary, Crazy, Not Insane.
The official synopsis states that the documentary will profile "forensic psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, who has spent her life investigating the interior lives of violent people, working with numerous serial killers including Ted Bundy.
"Her controversial work with 'multiples,' patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder, led her to develop a theory of what makes a killer and made her a polarizing expert witness. Her research videotapes, seen here for the first time, show eerie transformations in violent individuals as they move between the alter egos of their various personalities."
Over the years, fans of the true crime genre are familiar with just seeing the same sort of narrative approach in a feature.
For example, the crime is committed, we hear interviews with the relevant people, there's some sort of coverup, the trial takes place, and the focus is usually on the murderer/person accused of committing the crime.
However, Crazy, Not Insane looks like it's providing a very different take on the genre because it's predominantly focused on the people who provide the psychological profiles of serial killers.
Netflix's wonderful drama Mindhunter is definitely springing to mind here.
For US audiences, Crazy, Not Insane is set to be released on HBO in November. For Irish audiences, we fully expect it to be shown on Sky Crime or Sky Atlantic shortly after.
