How ‘The Staircase’ Is Stirring Up Debate About the Ethics of ‘Fictionalizing’ a Documentary
variety.comAddie Morfoot ContributorDisputes over Antonio Campos’ HBO Max adaptation of “The Staircase” have some in the documentary community questioning whether they would readily allow a narrative director to turn their facts into fiction.“The Staircase” revolves around the death of Kathleen Peterson and the murder trial of her husband Michael, as the filmmakers chronicling the case for a docuseries of the same name become central characters in the storytelling.
Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001, and Michael was convicted of murder in 2003 before accepting an Alford plea for manslaughter charges in 2017, which freed him for good.
The HBO Max series, which concluded this week, stars Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen; documentary filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is portrayed by Vincent Vermignon and editor Sophie Brunet by Juliette Binoche.
Shortly after the May 5 premiere of the HBO Max miniseries, in a Vanity Fair story, de Lestrade and Brunet both went public with their unhappiness with the miniseries, which depicts each acting in ethically questionable ways.
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