Institute History
Description
After 20 years of media speculation and public hysteria, the unsolved death of six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey remains one of the world’s most sensational child murder cases. Casting JonBenet presents audiences with a hybrid of nonfiction and fiction filmmaking that examines the complicated legacy of this tiny starlet.
Relying on a local casting call to entirely voice her film, director Kitty Green expands on a fascinating technique she last explored in her short film which won a 2014 Jury Award for nonfiction (The Face Of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul). Foregoing a standard investigative documentary style, she instead scrutinizes the court of public opinion by inciting responses, reflections, and even performance from members of the Ramseys’ own Colorado community. Her unique approach allows for all the fact and fiction of JonBenet’s case to be shared while deftly questioning the way individuals search out their own subjective truths.