Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer

Plot

Nonfiction filmmaker Nick Broomfield and his frequent collaborator Joan Churchill return to the subject of an earlier film, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, for Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Twelve years after the first film was made, Wuornos was still in contact with Broomfield from her cell on death row, and he was called as a witness in her final death penalty appeal before the state. Clips of the earlier film were used by defense lawyers to help make the case that Wuornos' lawyer during sentencing, Steven Glaser, was incompetent. Footage used in court shows Glaser smoking pot on his way to the prison to confer with his client. Broomfield uses the opportunity to interview Wuornos several more times and to examine the horrific details of her childhood, interviewing her acquaintances and surviving members of her family. While making the new film, Broomfield learns that Wuornos, increasingly unstable and paranoid, is unwilling to continue to fight for her life. Desperate to escape death row, she has abandoned her convincing claim that she committed murder in self-defense, and she now wants to be executed as soon as possible. In Jeb Bush's Florida, it's clear, this isn't difficult to accomplish. Broomfield talks to the mentally deteriorated Wuornos one last time before her execution. Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer had its New York premiere at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Review

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, directed by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, is a worthy follow-up to Broomfield's fascinating chronicle of Aileen Wuornos' exploitation at the hands of friends, family, the media, and her own lawyer in Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. As with Michael Moore, every frame of Broomfield's films is infused with his own gnomic personality. His work is more "film essay" than traditional documentary; there's no pretense of objectivity. Broomfield makes it quite clear, for example, that he opposes capital punishment (he points out again and again that it does not deter crime), and then he tells the story that reinforces his point. But this isn't just knee-jerk advocacy journalism. It's clear that Wuornos' story is one that matters to Broomfield on a very personal level. When, toward the end of the film, the clearly delusional Wuornos angrily flips off Broomfield's camera, yelling that "a raped woman got executed, and was used for books and movies and sh*t," there's an uncomfortable truth to her claim, especially as it could fairly be directed, not just at those who clearly used and exploited Wuornos to make a buck, but at Broomfield himself. He's clearly aware that, as deeply vested in her as he is, he's still using her. His only response is a sincere, "I'm sorry, Aileen." In the end, as with Steve James' powerful Stevie, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer provides food for thought by questioning the filmmaker's own culpability and the relative morality of his work, despite his obvious empathy for his subject. And even as Broomfield is certainly less introspective about his work than James, he's also more personally invested than he has been in other documentaries. He clearly derives a sense of purpose from the particular circumstances of Wuornos' case. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Cast

• Aileen Wuornos - Herself
• Nick Broomfield - Himself

Credit

Nick Broomfield - Director, Joan Churchill - Director, Claire Ferguson - Editor, Rob Lane - Composer (Music Score), Joan Churchill - Cinematographer, Jo Human - Producer, Steve Murphy - Sound Editor

Previous:	Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992 Film), Aila (1998 Film)
Next:	Aililia (1975 Film), Ailsa (1994 Film)