Scene of the Crime: The rise of true crime documentary
Sponsored by Belfast Media Festival
Location: Downstairs Theatre
Time: Thursday 17th November, 11.30am
True crime documentaries have dominated our TV screens in recent years and our obsession with killers and cold cases shows no sign of slowing. Three acclaimed documentary makers join us to discuss the explosive growth of the genre, share insights from their own productions, and address the moral and ethical considerations in making documentaries about real crimes.
John Dower (Director - Sophie: A Murder In West Cork - Netflix)
Mary McBrien (Series Producer - The Case I Can't Forget - RTE)
Andrew Tully (Series Producer- Murder In The Badlands - BBC)
William Crawley (Chair)
Mary McBrien
Producer, Rare TV/Green Inc
Mary McBrien
Having practised as a criminal barrister before moving into TV, Mary has been the series producer on the award nominated The Case I Can't Forget since it began in 2020.
Mary started her TV career in live studio/daytime before moving to factual. Following a number of years in London working with the BBC and ITV, she returned to Ireland where she has been with Rare TV/Green Inc since 2016.
Over the past three seasons, The Case I Can't Forget has established a reputation for victim-centred storytelling, bringing fresh perspectives to well known cases and drawing attention to lesser known stories.
Andrew Tully
Producer, Fine Point Films
Andrew Tully began working at Fine Point in 2014. He was Associate Producer on George Best: All By Himself (BBC/ESPN), and Wave Goodbye to Dinosaurs. In 2018, Andrew co-produced One Million American Dreams (Hulu) and produced Hear My Voice (BBC). In 2019, he co-produced the feature documentary An Engineer Imagines. 2021 saw the release of My Name Is Bulger (Discovery+) & Ryan McMullan: Debut (BBC).
In 2022, Andrew has produced the 4-part series for BBC titled Murder In The Badlands. He is currently producing a 3-part series for RTÉ on the life of Sean Quinn and a feature length film on the career of Cyndi Lauper for Sony Music Entertainment.
John Dower
Director
John Dower is a filmmaker who recently directed the Netflix series Sophie: A Murder in West Cork. Other films include The Mystery of DB Cooper, Thriller in Manila, Bradley Wiggins: A Year in Yellow and My Scientology Movie.
