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Thread: Werner Herzog’s "Into the Abyss"/"On Death Row"

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Werner Herzog’s "Into the Abyss"/"On Death Row"

    Kris Tapley at In Contention calls Werner Herzog’s new documentary “a crucial viewing experience.”

    In short, the film is a penetrating, comprehensive look at the issue of capital punishment by way of studying the circumstances and prominent figures in the case of Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, two Texas youths who were accused of a triple homicide in 2001…

    Whatever your position on capital punishment, the film is necessary, plain and simple. If you believe in it, you need to spend the time Herzog does with the family and friends of the accused, pealing back the layers of judgment and digging to the root of his thesis: all life is precious. If you don’t believe in it, you need to witness the pain of the victims’ families, as Herzog conveys it, and the cold brutality of the more sterile portions dedicated to forensics and consideration of the crimes. It isn’t for the purpose of swaying opinion, I feel, so much as the purpose of educating whatever opinion you might have.

    …Herzog’s film is a remarkably balanced portrait (those who support the death penalty may even come away thinking he’s made their case), even if his admission at the top clues the audience in to his leanings here and there. But most importantly, it’s a non-judgmental portrait. His goal is to reveal the circumstances of all involved, not just the chilly facts as documented in a court setting. The world is gray.

    …I happen to believe in capital punishment, situationally, but I’m not interested in debating the politics of that in this space. I just think it’s worth it to give my perspective. The point is I found this film incredibly poignant, the best of the festival for me so far, and absolutely crucial viewing for anyone who thinks he or she has an opinion on the matter. It simply isn’t right to have that opinion safely, from a distance. The stakes are too high.







  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Murder victims’ family climbing out of ‘Abyss’

    While German director Werner Herzog’s new film about a 2001 triple murder in Conroe shows how that violent act set many lives into an abyss of pain, “everything has changed for the better” in the last year for Lisa Stotler Balloun.

    The daughter of Sandra Stotler and sister to Adam Stotler, two of the people shot to death by Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, Balloun found her life – and those of her family members – spiraling downward after the murders.

    But the July 2010 execution of Perry was a turning point.

    “I don’t want to sound like it was a rebirth,” she said Tuesday, “but it helped me tremendously.”

    Herzog, an acclaimed director, is winning accolades for his documentary “Into the Abyss,” which opened Friday. While the film – featuring an interview with Perry eight days before his death as well as with Burkett, Stotler, crime scene investigators and Perry’s executioner – gives no overt opinions on the death penalty, Herzog is vehemently against it.

    He points to the Nazis’ killing of millions of Jews and other Europeans during Word War II.

    “There were thousands and thousands of cases of capital punishment; there was a stematic program of euthanasia, and on top of it the industrialized extermination of six million Jews in a genocide that has no precedence in human history,” Herzog writes in a statement included in press materials for the film.

    “The argument that innocent men and women have been executed is, in my opinion, only a secondary one. A State should not be allowed – under any circumstance – to execute anyone for any reason. End of story.”

    The film was “different than I thought it was going to be,” Balloun said. “I was very impressed by it.”

    In the film, Perry continues to proclaim his innocence. As he lay on the gurney during his execution, his last statement was, “I want to start off by saying and letting everyone involved in this atrocity know they’re all forgiven by me.”

    Then, Balloun said those words helped her realize justice finally had been done for her mother, her brother and for Jeremy Richardson, a friend of Adam Stotler’s and the third victim of Perry and Burkett during their crime spree.

    “As soon as he gave his last statement, I knew,” she said.

    Because they wanted her red Camaro, Perry and Burkett broke into Sandra Stotler’s Lake Conroe-area home to steal it. They shot her in the back in her laundry room and dumped her body in Crater Lake, near Grangerland.

    A nurse at Conroe Regional Medical Center, Sandra Stotler, 51, had been baking cookies just before she died.

    After all the evidence had been gathered, Balloun’s husband cleaned the blood from his mother-in-law’s home so her daughter wouldn’t have to see it.

    “I remember her white home, all lacy inside, covered with all the black fingerprinting powder,” Balloun said. “I remember the cookie dough on the stove.”

    After they dumped Sandra Stotler’s body in Crater Lake, where it was discovered days later by fishermen, Perry and Burkett then returned to her home. They lured Adam Stotler, 16, and Jeremy Richardson, 18, to a nearby wooded area. There, they shot and killed both of them and stole Adam Stotler’s SUV.

    Perry was stopped while driving Sandra Stotler’s Camaro, but released after showing police Adam Stotler’s driver’s license. Police then discovered Perry and Burkett at an apartment, where the two escaped and fled in Adam Stotler’s SUV. A gun battle ensued as police chased them and finally caught them.

    Burkett, charged with all three murders, received a life sentence. Perry was charged only with Sandra Stotler’s murder.

    “Burkett is a child killer,” Balloun said. “If he goes up for parole, we’re not going to forget about it. For me, it goes on.”

    Balloun had already lost her father six years before her mother’s murder when he was hit by a train. The tragedy of losing her mother and brother “has torn our family apart,” she said.

    “We all get together and half the family’s gone,” she said. “(Mom) was the planner. She was always the caretaker, the glue.”

    For the first time in several years, Balloun’s aunt and grandmother will join the family for Thanksgiving at the home of her mother-in-law, Linda Balloun.

    After going through financial difficulties, Lisa Balloun, her husband and their two children moved in with Linda. The children, now 10 and 14, just moved back into their own beds, Lisa Balloun said. Her fears for them during the nighttime kept them close to her in her bed while her husband slept in another.

    She still has terrible dreams of her mother, dressed in white. As Sandra Stotler changes into “what she was in the lake,” Balloun said, the wind picks up, slams open a door and threatens to blow her baby off a table in her car seat onto the floor.

    “Every time she gets closer to the floor,” Balloun said. “I don’t know what it means. It’s just horrible, horrible dreams.”

    While she didn’t have her mother to help her raise her children, they are the ones who have kept her going, as has her husband, who she has been with since high school, Balloun said.

    “If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have made it,” she said.

    Herzog and his film crew was empathetic and “I really feel he felt my pain that day,” Balloun said. “They did a wonderful job.”

    The filmmaker held a premier in Conroe two weeks ago for the local residents involved in the film.

    Balloun was unable to attend the film’s premier in New York. She’s still recovering from surgery to remove a benign tumor, and she will have to go through heart surgery soon, she said.

    While she’s recovering physically and is on the road to regaining her emotional strength, the murders of her mother and brother may have changed her outlook on life for good.

    “I hate to say it – you just can’t trust anyone, not even your friends. I used to think there was more good in this world than evil,” Balloun said.

    “I have to believe these things happened for a reason and someday I’ll go, ‘Ok, now I get it.’

    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/magno...cc4c002e0.html

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    WERNER HERZOG'S HAUNTING TELEVISION SERIES "ON DEATH ROW" BRINGS HIS UNPARALLELED FILMMAKING TALENTS TO INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY

    - Series Delves Into the Themes Explored in Herzog's Critically-Acclaimed Theatrical Documentary Into the Abyss -

    Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss debuted in September 2011 to rave reviews and festival buzz from Telluride to Toronto. Exploring the intricate details and emotional aftermath of a triple homicide in Conroe, Texas, Herzog sought to better understand the impact of life in prison and the shattering effects of the death penalty. Of the two young perpetrators featured in the film, one will spend most of his life in prison while the other was executed just eight days after his interview with Herzog.

    In this four-part companion television series, created by Herzog exclusively for Investigation Discovery, the Academy-Award nominated filmmaker dives deeper into the abyss of the human soul. Through interviews with five additional inmates awaiting their appointment with a lethal injection in the Texas and Florida prison systems, Herzog conducts a uniquely thought-provoking analysis of why people, and the state, kill. ON DEATH ROW makes its world premiere on Investigation Discovery, premiering Friday, March 9 at 10 PM ET/PT.

    "We were incredibly honored to work with Werner over the past two years, both on the theatrical documentary and on this emotionally compelling and, ultimately, disturbing television series," said Henry Schleiff, president and general manager, Investigation Discovery, Military Channel and Planet Green. "His interview style produces some of the most intimate and interesting portraits of perpetrators I've seen in my decades in television. I was haunted by the depths of human evil portrayed, and I look forward to sharing this truly contemplative series with our audience."

    Each episode of ON DEATH ROW features an intense interview with a death row inmate to hear their own account of life in captivity and the crime that condemned them. While German-born Herzog respectfully disagrees with capital punishment, the series is not focused on the politics surrounding the death penalty. Instead, in true Herzog style, he explores the emotions that these men and women go through as they possess the haunting knowledge of exactly when - and how - they are going to die.

    The interview subjects include:

    James Barnes: After hiding his wife's corpse in the closet, James Barnes was convicted of murder in 1998. While in prison, Barnes converted to Islam and, during the holy month of Ramadan, confessed to a previous murder - the gruesome homicide of Patricia Miller in 1988. Barnes broke into Miller's home, where he sexually assaulted and bludgeoned her to death. To cover up his crime, Barnes set fire to the bed to which Miller was bound. Barnes pled guilty to the murder and was sentenced to death.

    Joseph Garcia/George Rivas: Joseph Garcia was only 19 years old when he repeatedly stabbed a man after a night of heavy drinking and a jury sentenced him to 50 years. Despairing after six years behind bars, Garcia joined the "Texas Seven." This now infamous gang was allegedly formed by George Rivas, a man whose record includes numerous counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon. The group escaped the prison walls but while on the run, several of the escapees shot and killed a police officer. As a result, all of the convicts were given the death penalty.

    Hank Skinner: The brutal murder of Twila Busby and her two sons seemed easy to solve. Hank Skinner was found nearby with blood from the crime scene on his shirt. After a trial, Skinner was given the death penalty. Skinner protested, complaining that DNA tests had not been performed on many crucial bits of evidence. He was scheduled to be executed in March 2010 but, just 45 minutes before the lethal injection, the Supreme Court stayed his sentence - and Skinner was notified of the stay just 23 minutes before his scheduled execution. While he remains on death row in Texas, new DNA testing is moving forward.

    Linda Anita Carty: Linda Carty was convicted and sentenced to death in February 2002 for the murder of 25-year-old Joana Rodriguez, allegedly in order to steal her four-day-old son. On May 16, 2001, Carty organized three co-defendants to invade Rodriguez's home. The young mother was hog-tied with duct tape and placed in the trunk of a car. A bag was taped over her head and she died from suffocation. Carty claims she is innocent and has appealed exhaustively against her conviction. Barring the granting of clemency, she stands to become the first black British woman to be executed in more than a century.

    ON DEATH ROW is written and directed by Werner Herzog and produced by Erik Nelson of Creative Differences. For Investigation Discovery, Henry Schleiff and Sara Kozak are executive producers.

    About Werner Herzog:

    Werner Herzog (born Werner H. Stipetic) was born in Munich on September 5, 1942. He grew up in a remote mountain village in Bavaria and never saw any films, television, or telephones as a child. He started traveling on foot from the age of 14. He made his first phone call at the age of 17. During high school, he worked the nightshift as a welder in a steel factory to produce his first films and made his first film in 1961 at the age of 19. Since then, he has produced, written, and directed more than fifty films, published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas.

    About Investigation Discovery:

    Investigation Discovery (ID) is America's leading investigation network and the fastest-growing network in television. As the source for fact-based analytical content and compelling human stories, ID probes factors that challenge our everyday understanding of culture, society and the human condition. ID delivers the highest-quality programming to nearly 79 million U.S. households with viewer favorites that include On the Case with Paula Zahn, Disappeared, Unusual Suspects and Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets. For more information, please visit InvestigationDiscovery.com, facebook.com/InvestigationDiscovery, or twitter.com/DiscoveryID. Investigation Discovery is part of Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the world's #1 nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in 210 countries and territories.

    http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2.../20120113id01/

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    Junior Member Stranger allenlevi's Avatar
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    NEW SERIES ON ID NETWORK Mar 09, 10:00 pm

    On Death Row
    James Barnes
    TV-14 (D)

    Werner Herzog visits Florida death row and interviews inmate James Barnes, for a frighteningly candid interview with the man convicted of murdering a nurse in 1988.

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    I'm excited about the series as well. Supposedly Herzog conducts a uniquely thought-provoking analysis of why people, and the state, kill. I'm wondering if On Death Row will be as unbiased as Into The Abyss was billed to be.

  6. #6
    Jan
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    Is there any stream or another possibility for me to watch this in Germany?

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Here is a link to ID Network

    http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/on-death-row/

    There are a few episode previews. In the following weeks they may post full episodes.

  8. #8
    JKW
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Tonight at 10:00 pm EST, ID Network will air the first of Werner Herzog's 4 part series, "On Death Row" This evenings episode will feature James Barnes.
    This is sad. I think the death penalty should be abolished.

  9. #9
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    What have you found sad about James Barnes? Why do you think the death penalty should be abolished?

  10. #10
    Senior Member Frequent Poster stixfix69's Avatar
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    Heidi, for next weeks show open a chat, and we can discuss during the show.....

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