Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jeremiah Zagar |
Produced by | Lori Cheatle Gabriel Sedgwick |
Cinematography | Naiti Gámez |
Edited by | Keiko Deguchi |
Music by | Zoë Keating |
Production companies | Hard Working Movies Passion Pictures |
Distributed by | HBO |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Jeremiah Zagar. [1] The film premiered in competition in the category of U.S. Documentary Competition program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 2014. [2]
The film tells the story of the 1990 murder of Gregg Smart and the subsequent New Hampshire trial and conviction, with gavel to gavel media coverage, of murderer Pamela Smart. [4]
The film received mostly positive response from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it has 63% rating based on 8 reviews, on an average rating of 7.2/10. [5] Dennis Harvey, in his review for Variety , said that "This is all intriguing, and will especially fascinate those who weren’t around and overexposed to the case 20-odd years ago. But Zagar’s thesis — that overpowering media exploitation determined its legal outcome early on — is introduced in the very first shot, then hammered home harder the longer the pic goes on." [6]
Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it a "[s]mart indictment of the media’s sensationalistic influence on the murder trial of Pamela Smart." [7] Beth Hanna from Indiewire in her review said that "Everything, from the nightly newscasts that feverishly covered Smart’s case to Zagar’s own film, is an edited story." [8]
Pamela Ann Smart is an American woman who was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. In 1990, at age 22, Smart was accused of conspiring with her underaged sex partner, then 15-year-old William "Billy" Flynn, and three of his friends to have her 24-year-old husband Greggory Smart killed in Derry, New Hampshire. She is currently serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum security prison in Westchester County, New York.
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