“There Were Clearly Other Things Going On, From Klan Involvement to Pedophile Rings...”: Maro Chermayeff on the HBO Docuseries Atlanta’s Missing And Murdered: The Lost Children

HBO’s Atlanta’s Missing And Murdered: The Lost Children, a five-part docuseries executive produced and directed by Sam Pollard and Maro Chermayeff, along with Jeff Dupre and Joshua Bennett, is an intricate reexamination of one of the most horrific events in that southern city’s not-too-distant history — the kidnapping and murder of at least 30 (though likely more) African-American children and young adults between 1979 and 1981. Though the crimes ultimately would all be pinned on one man, a 23-year-old oddball named Wayne Williams, the case has now been reopened by current Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The case was the throughline for the most recent season of the David Fincher-produced Netflix drama Mindhunter, and now, in the non-fiction world, it finds Pollard and Chermayeff weaving together archival footage, revelatory court documents, and a wealth of new interviews with those who lived through the tragedy (from still-grieving relatives to suspicious lawyers and reporters). In the process the acclaimed filmmakers unwind what had been a tidy tale about a prolific serial killer into a damning indictment of an entire city filled with self-serving secrets.

Filmmaker was fortunate to catch up with Chermayeff soon after the airing of the docuseries’s third installment. (Episodes drop every Sunday throughout the month.)

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.