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“Hi, guys, I’m Terra, and I killed my stepdad in self-defense,” the woman in the video chirpily says. She has long, sweeping blond hair and is wearing a baseball tee, and with her upbeat demeanor she comes off more like an incoming sorority girl doing icebreakers at rush than a survivor of a horrific, widely publicized violent crime.

@terranewell

♬ original sound – Terra Newell

The woman in the video is Terra Newell, the former stepdaughter of con artist John Meehan, the subject of the hugely popular 2017 L.A. Times-serialized-investigation-turned-podcast-series-turned-Bravo-tv-show Dirty John.

Tracing the link between prior family violence and the present day, A Murder in Mansfield is Barbara Kopple’s intimate exploration of the relationship between cinematographer Collier Landry and his father John Boyle, who was convicted of the grisly murder of his wife, Noreen. The facts of the case are known: Noreen was killed in the middle of the night in Mansfield, Oh, her body transported to the Boyle’s new home in Erie, Pa, buried under fresh concrete and discovered in January of 1990. A 12-year-old Collier was the key witness in his mother’s murder trial against his own father, instantly capturing the attention of the news.

Going beyond a “where are they now” story, A Murder in Mansfield explores the effect of the murder as Landry returns from L.A. to Ohio in the dead of winter to revisit his childhood home. The case’s lead investigator, the kind Lt.

A murder claims far more victims than just the person who was killed. The devastating emotional aftermath of such a crime is explored in the new documentary by veteran filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Revolving around Collier Landry, whose mother was brutally murdered by his father when he was a young boy, A Murder in Mansfield is a true-crime saga packing an emotional punch. The film recently received its world premiere at Docnyc.

Landry was just 12 years old when he testified in court. The film's mesmerizing centerpiece is footage of that testimony in which the eerily self-possessed youngster delivers a devastating...

MaryAnn’s quick take… An honest and brave portrait of the trauma and grief of those in the immediate periphery of a terrible crime. A simple, intimate film, and a powerful one. I’m “biast” (pro): love Kopple’s films

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Filmmaker Barbara Kopple is a legend. She’s won two Oscars for Best Documentary, the first of which, for 1976’s Harlan County USA, honors the film that arguably kicked off the modern era of documentary filmmaking as journalistic activism. Now, her latest film is part of a reinvention of the true-crime subgenre to tell stories that are less procedural and more emotional, looking at the long-term impact not on victims or perpetrators but on those on the periphery. (See also: Yance Ford’s Strong Island, now streaming on Netflix.)

Barbara Kopple is helping to...

“I did not murder Mommy on purpose,” John Boyle Jr. insists. He stares at his son, Collier Landry, through thick glasses. “That’s not my intention, I did not plan that.”

Collier Landry faces his father in an overwhelmingly taupe prison room. “Did you want me as a son?” he asks curtly. “Did you want a child?”

Boyle responds as if by rote. “Sure.”

So goes Landry’s futile quest for fatherly approval, the journey at the heart of illustrious documentarian Barbara Kopple’s latest project, “A Murder in Mansfield.” The film follows Landry as he returns to his Ohio hometown to uncover the truth about his mother’s murder.

Continue reading Barbara Kopple’s Overwrought & Emotionally Unsatisfying ‘A Murder In Mansfield’ [Doc NYC Review] at The Playlist.

“A friend of mine has this absolutely fantastic story that we should all do together.” Barbara Kopple heard these words, she tells me, on a phone call last year with producer John Morrissey (American History X). She’s likely heard such preambles before. Kopple has directed documentaries for more than 40 years, from her landmark labor-strike feature Harlan County U.S.A. to her profiles of Woody Allen (Wild Man Blues), the Dixie Chicks (Shut Up & Sing) and the late, eternally great Sharon Jones (Miss Sharon Jones!). Morrissey wanted to pitch Kopple a film on Collier Landry, an L.A.-based filmmaker whose mother […]...

It’s that time of the year again. Every fall, New York City becomes the focal point for any and every fan of non-fiction cinema, as one of the year’s most prestigious documentary festivals is finally, again, set to take the city by storm. Doc NYC is now in its eighth edition, and this is one of their best, and largest, lineups to date.

Broken down into over 15 different sections and sidebars, Doc NYC 2017 features everything from short films to films looking at art, design, music and social activism, just to name a few. There are sections like Metropolis, a competition sidebar featuring films set in and about New York City, as well as the Short List, a section of the best documentaries curated from the year so far. It’s a dense, broadly reaching festival with films from across the globe and that defy definition.

Besides films from...