305 S. Campbell, Suite 101
Springfield, MO 65806
(417) 429-0800
info@moxiecinema.com
Against the backdrop of deserted spaces, a filmmaker explores his abandoned Zodiac Killer documentary, delving into the true crime genre's inner workings at a saturation point. (NR, 92 min.)
(TBD)
Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton was hot on the trail of the next great American true crime documentary—a riveting account of a highway patrolman’s quixotic effort to identify and capture the infamous Zodiac Killer.
Shackleton devised a plan, began collecting interviews, and shot “evocative B-roll” footage of ghostly California freeways and parking lots where the killer may have once lurked. And then the project fell apart, leaving Shackleton with fragments of the unfinished film and time to ruminate on shortcuts and signifiers of the ubiquitous genre.
Zodiac Killer Project emerges from the ash heap to probe and deconstruct the form with the incisive eye of a true crime connoisseur. A witty and beautifully assembled deep dive into our obsession with serial killers and the stories we tell about them, Shackleton’s resuscitation of his abandoned film follows in the free-range footsteps of documentary philosophers Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, and Joshua Oppenheimer. [Music Box Films]
Directed, Narrated and Edited by : Charlie Shackleton
Genre: Documentary, Crime, Mystery
"Zodiac Killer Project is a wicked embodiment of Marshall McLuhan’s notion of the media itself being the message."
— Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
"Any students and/or devotees of the true-crime spree rampant in our modern storytelling will find Zodiac Killer Project a must-see."
— Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"The result is even better than his initial design: a sharp, hilarious, self-aware, and acutely insightful work of both celebration and critique."
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
"It’s a brave, fascinating piece of filmmaking that asks viewers to question the mysteries of true crime storytelling and how they’re being told."
— Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"Eviscerates with wit and onscreen receipts the conventions of the true-crime genre that have been hammered into cliché over the past decades."
— Ty Burr, Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)
"Charlie Shackleton gets at the heart of what makes these docs so successful on both a psychological and schematic level. He deconstructs the genre but also manages to deepen it."
— Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
"A work of criticism as well as a work of art, it’s a sharp takedown of our culture’s obsession with true crime, identifying and skewering the genre’s most familiar tropes even as it playfully indulges in them."
— Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture
"Zodiac Killer Project is not one more addition to the ever-expanding canon of true-crime docs. It is, in fact, something even better: an oddball, puckish, highly forensic side-eyed look at the True-Crime Entertainment Complex."
— David Fear, Rolling Stone
