2024 Victoria Film Festival – Citizen Sleuth

Filmmaker expected to attend
Tingle
Crime + Podcast + Ethics
Chris Kasick
USA | 2023 | 82 min
Documentary

When Emily Nestor, true crime podcaster from Appalachia, begins to conduct an amateur murder investigation into the death of Jaleayah Davis – teasing a cover-up by the Sheriff’s Department – the lines between fact and entertainment become blurred. Emily makes a compelling case for murder, lies, inconsistencies, nepotism, and mystery, as she investigates the mysterious death of this local young woman. Her podcast becomes a hit, drawing in an audience of millions, which makes uncovering the truth more complicated. The stakes become personal.

In an intimate portrait of a narrator struggling to tell the truth and understand the ethical tightrope of the modern media landscape, both journalist/subject and filmmaker become implicated in a conversation about power, conscience, and profit. In a dissection of our obsession with true crime podcasts, Citizen Sleuth examines the ethics of the genre and how the power of narrative affects truth, victims, and communities. In pursuing the truth, do we really understand how easily the truth can be compromised? – KS