Media Mayhem with Allison Hope Weiner
Episode 168
CAPTIVATED: The Trials Of Pamela Smart HBO Documentary with Jeremiah Zagar
HBO Documentary, CAPTIVATED: The Trials of Pamela Smart, explores the truth behind the sensational killing and trial that inspired TO DIE FOR, MURDER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, and hours of rabid media coverage. The story of Pamela Smart, Billy Flynn,the courts and killing is all discussed, and the trailer to the documentary is shared by filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar in this Media Mayhem interview.
Episode Breakdown
00:01 Welcome to Media Mayhem.
00:30 Introducing Jeremiah Zagar.
01:30 To Die For, Murder in New Hampshire, Captivated, and Pamela Smart as created by the media.
06:50 Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart clip: Trailer.
07:40 Did media coverage and publicity taint the judge and jury?
15:20 Billy Flynn’s disingenuous testimony. Was the media’s portrayal of him accurate?
22:30 Did the judge fail Smart, and if so, was it intentional?
29:00 Relying on memory for a delayed trial and the bird motif in Captivated.
35:20 Discerning the truth in high profile cases.
37:00 Thanks and goodbye.
Guest Bio
Jeremiah Zagar is the cofounder of Public Record, a production company specializing in commercial and documentary storytelling. Born in South Philadelphia in 1981, Zagar is the son of artists and has been making films since he was a teenager. He completed his first documentary, a short called Delhi House, at age 19. It screened at a number of festivals, including the Slamdance Film Festival and also screened at the Egyptian Theatre in LA as part of the American Cinematheque series. A year later Zagar’s The Unbelievable Truth was a semi-finalist in the student Academy Awards, screened at Tribeca and was named ‘Best Narrative Short’ in the Philadelphia Film Festival.
His other work includes the Emmy Award–nominated Starved for Attention —a series of seven short films about global childhood malnutrition for Doctors Without Border and the short documentary Heart Stop Beating, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
His latest film CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart, produced by Lori Cheatle will air later this year on HBO. The Pamela Smart trial made history as the first trial televised gavel to gavel. With elements of sex, drugs, rock and roll, betrayal and murder, it captured the attention of a nation and became the inspiration for twenty years of movies, TV shows, books and theater, including To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman, directed by Gus Van Sant. Unfolding with the suspense of a fiction film, Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart uncovers the deeper story that most people have never seen and looks at how the media created a version that the public believes.
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