20 Documentaries That Ruined People's Lives
Airing out the dirty laundry never goes well! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at documentary films or docuseries that resulted in strong negative effects on the lives of their filmmakers, subjects, or participants.
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00:00 The downside of giving an interview is that the interviewer will take what I've said
00:06 to make me look as bad as possible.
00:09 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at documentary films or docuseries that resulted
00:13 in strong negative effects on the lives of their filmmakers, subjects, or participants.
00:18 The thought crossed my mind, what if she's one of these people who just never tells the
00:22 truth and she just made everything up?
00:26 Jesus Camp - Kids on Fire School of Ministry
00:30 Devil's Lake, North Dakota was the ironic subject of the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp.
00:35 It detailed the goings on at the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a Pentecostal summer camp
00:39 that gave children an inappropriate and extreme relationship with religion.
00:43 I'm here to be trained.
00:46 I'm here for an education.
00:50 I'm willing, God.
00:52 I'll do what you want me to do.
00:56 While Jesus Camp received favorable reviews, many took issues with the themes of child
01:00 indoctrination and found it difficult to watch.
01:03 As a result, angry fans bombarded the ministry with letters and physical defacement.
01:07 Reverend Becky Fisher was forced to disband the camp and move out, as the land's owners
01:12 had them evicted owing to the vandalism.
01:14 Tales of the Grim Sleeper - Lonnie David Franklin Jr.
01:18 Do we feel bad when the ruined life is that of a serial killer?
01:21 We'll pose that philosophical quandary with Tales of the Grim Sleeper.
01:25 This documentary details the life and crimes of the killer of the same name.
01:28 Did you ever know him?
01:29 No, but I heard that he used to work here.
01:32 He used to work here?
01:33 That's what I heard.
01:34 Yeah, he said he used to work here and I don't know when he went after that.
01:41 Between 1984 and 2007, the Grim Sleeper killed at least 10 people and committed other acts
01:46 of sexual violence.
01:47 The killer was Lonnie David Franklin Jr., and he was arrested in 2010.
01:51 The documentary was released four years later, with 15 women opening up about their horrific
01:55 experiences.
01:56 I still can't process this person who killed these women being the person who would go
02:02 above and beyond to help you.
02:03 It not only introduced a wider audience to the story, but it completely tarnished the
02:07 name and reputation of Franklin, who had yet to be convicted.
02:11 That occurred in 2016, and Franklin was sentenced to death.
02:14 Tickled - David DeMatto
02:16 New Zealand TV reporter David Farrier stumbled across the rather bizarre practice of competitive
02:21 endurance tickling.
02:23 This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - videos of people being restrained and
02:26 then tickled, supposedly in the guise of endurance sport.
02:29 An American company called Jane O'Brien Media was running a monthly event.
02:35 Young athletes from anywhere on the planet could apply.
02:38 If selected, they got free flights to LA, four nights in a really nice hotel, and $1,500
02:44 cash.
02:45 But really, they were just fetish videos involving attractive athletic men.
02:49 Farrier's adventure led him to one Terry DeSisto, the shadowy recruiter and distributor
02:54 of the videos.
02:55 Farrier discovers that Terry DeSisto is one David DeMatto, a former high school assistant
02:59 principal.
03:00 You're in this country on a tourist visa.
03:01 By doing anything related to so-called journalism, you're in violation of the federal law here.
03:02 I'm on a journalism visa, so I'm okay to be here.
03:13 DeMatto's identity was supposedly exposed and he sued the filmmakers for defamation.
03:17 However, he died in March 2017, just ten months after the film was released.
03:22 Kony 2012 - Joseph Kony
03:25 Nothing screams the early 2010s quite like Kony 2012.
03:29 Documentary from Jason Russell was everywhere in the spring of 2012 thanks to a high-profile
03:33 marketing campaign.
03:34 And because of the course of events in my life, I see a way to get there.
03:40 It has become my job.
03:42 Who are you to end a war?
03:44 I'm here to tell you who are you not to.
03:46 The goal of the documentary was to shed light on one Joseph Kony, the leader of a Ugandan
03:50 terrorist group called the Lord's Resistance Army.
03:53 Kony 2012 and its popular campaign helped inspire the African Union to send thousands
03:58 of troops into Kony's known areas in an effort to find him.
04:01 While the terrorist has yet to be located, the documentary has raised pressure on the
04:05 hunt and made Joseph Kony a household name.
04:07 With hundreds of thousands of people with us, we went back to Washington DC and we met
04:13 with congressmen and senators one by one, on both sides, Republicans, Democrats, and
04:20 they all agreed with us.
04:22 Joseph Kony's crimes had to be stopped.
04:24 Luckily, it is now believed that the Lord's Resistance Army has shrunk in number and is
04:28 no longer a serious threat.
04:30 The Woman Who Wasn't There - Alicia Head
04:33 The woman is Alicia Head, and there was the World Trade Center on 9/11.
04:37 A woman named Tanya Head claimed to have survived the September 11 attacks and even led a support
04:41 group called the World Trade Center Survivors Network.
04:44 We started as an online peer support group where you could go into a Yahoo group and
04:48 connect to other survivors 24 hours a day.
04:51 So one day you were having a bad day and you would post it online and within 30 minutes
04:56 you'd get 40 replies of people saying, "I know what you feel."
04:59 Her story became incredibly popular, earning interviews in the media and photos with the
05:03 likes of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki.
05:07 And slowly but surely the truth unraveled, as the woman who wasn't there so delicately
05:11 proves Tanya Head was a fraud.
05:13 Her real name is Alicia Head, and she was doing her master's in Spain when 9/11 occurred.
05:19 The documentary helped expose Head's deception,
05:33 and she was even fired from her position at a Spanish insurance company.
05:38 Surviving R. Kelly
05:39 R. Kelly
05:40 Few documentaries have the cultural power of Surviving R. Kelly.
05:43 Kelly was an enormously popular R&B artist, but his reputation has been permanently tarnished
05:48 thanks to the magical work of this documentary.
05:50 Originally released in 2019, it highlighted the sexual abuse allegations that had been
06:07 made against the titular singer.
06:09 Immediately following the series, R. Kelly's music was banned from many radio stations
06:13 and he was dropped by RCA Records.
06:16 But even more substantial was the work done by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
06:20 Less than two months after the documentary's first season aired, they charged Kelly with
06:23 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
06:43 This kickstarted a legal process that ended with Kelly being sent away for 31 years.
06:49 Living with Michael Jackson
06:50 In 2005, the legendary musician was acquitted of 14 nasty charges that we won't get into
06:57 here.
06:58 This trial and its culmination have reverberated through pop culture for years, and debate
07:01 about Jackson's innocence continues to this day.
07:13 This mess can be traced back to Martin Bashir's 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson.
07:18 Bashir brings up a number of troubling topics, including Jackson's involvement with children
07:22 at Neverland Ranch.
07:23 Bashir has been passionately criticized for his filmmaking and behavior, but his documentary
07:27 nevertheless held incredible power.
07:40 It kickstarted the legal investigation that led to Jackson's charges and the eventual
07:44 criminal trial that continues to tarnish his legacy.
07:47 Blues by the Beach
07:48 Jack Baxter
07:50 Shortly before 1am on April 30, 2003, a Tel Aviv bar called Mike's Place was bombed by
07:55 terrorists, killing three and wounding 50.
07:58 One of them was filmmaker Jack Baxter.
08:00 Baxter planned on making a documentary about the bar with the hopes of capturing Tel Aviv's
08:04 happier and more lively side, a contrast to the media's violent depiction of the Israeli
08:08 city.
08:19 But then tragedy struck.
08:20 The bar was bombed in the middle of filming, seriously injuring Baxter.
08:24 Luckily, the producer was released from hospital following surgery and reworked his film to
08:28 include both the bombing and its consequences.
08:31 Sometimes the filmmaker tragically becomes the subject.
08:34 Nanook of the North
08:35 The Inuit Indigenous Peoples
08:37 This is undoubtedly an important piece of history, being the first documentary to attain
08:41 widespread success.
08:43 However, this is not a documentary in the way we think of the genre, as it also incorporates
08:47 fictional elements into its story.
08:49 The film follows an Inuk man named Nanook and the struggles he endures with his family.
08:57 However, the movie is filled with fabrications, not the least of which was Nanook's name.
09:04 His real name was Alec Kariyalak, but that wasn't as marketable.
09:08 The documentary has long been criticized for making the Inuit look less civilized than
09:11 they actually were, and it was blamed for reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
09:20 Even worse, this film helped perpetuate the stereotypes in pop culture, ensuring that
09:24 they persisted for decades to come.
09:26 Blackfish - SeaWorld
09:29 This film from Gabriela Kalperthwaite targets SeaWorld and the general practice of performing
09:33 orcas through the lens of Tilikum.
09:35 Tilikum was a whale at SeaWorld Orlando who killed three trainers throughout his career,
09:39 supposedly out of the psychological trauma stemming from captivity.
09:49 Blackfish dealt incredible damage to the SeaWorld brand, resulting in a loss of attendance and
09:53 a significant drop in stock price.
09:55 California introduced the Orca Welfare and Safety Act in response to the film, and the
09:59 business was also hit with federal charges resulting in a $5 million settlement.
10:19 The controversy was enough that SeaWorld announced it would be ending its live orca show.
10:24 Tiger King - Carole Baskin
10:26 Eccentric former zookeeper Joe Exotic claims that the hit Netflix docuseries Tiger King
10:31 ruined his life.
10:32 That's saying a lot considering he was already in prison when the show premiered.
10:42 It may be less debatable to argue that the documentary instead damaged the reputation
10:45 of his arch-nemesis, Carole Baskin.
10:52 Tiger King seemingly painted the animal rights activist as Exotic's even-matching ego, if
10:57 not animal mistreatment.
10:58 The docuseries was also criticized for overexposing the theory that Baskin had a hand in her ex-husband
11:03 Don Lewis' disappearance.
11:11 This particularly inspired devastating harassment online.
11:14 Though her race profile has also promoted her activism, Baskin feels betrayed by Netflix's
11:19 depiction, and that too many people have made up their minds on the mystery of Lewis' fate.
11:35 The case of John Benet Ramsey - Burke Ramsey
11:38 The unsolved murder of child beauty queen John Benet Ramsey has been followed by scandal
11:42 ever since 1996.
11:50 As if the loss and media circus weren't traumatizing enough, the Ramsey family has long dealt with
11:55 theories that they were the culprits.
11:56 All three members were eventually cleared by DNA evidence in 2008.
12:00 Nonetheless, the 2016 miniseries The Case of John Benet Ramsey still argued that the
12:04 victim's older brother, Burke, was responsible.
12:20 Burke promptly filed a defamation suit against CBS and some of the show's participants.
12:25 Following an out-of-court settlement, the older Ramsey returned to a private life.
12:29 Still with many maintaining that John Benet was killed by Burke, he has undoubtedly found
12:33 his reputation tarnished by the claims of this docuseries.
12:52 The King of Kong - A Fistful of Quarters - Billy Mitchell
12:55 Seth Gordon's documentary on the feud for Donkey Kong conquest won high scores with
13:00 audiences.
13:01 But public attention at Revive for record holder Billy Mitchell backfired.
13:13 The King of Kong was among the sources investigated by specialists to conclude that Mitchell's
13:17 scoring track record was partially attained with emulation software.
13:21 This provided an undue advantage, allowing anyone to play outside of arcade machines.
13:36 Mitchell's records were removed from databases and the gaming community ostracized him.
13:40 In a defamation suit against his accusers, he even claimed that his doctor refused to
13:44 treat his stress-related health issues.
13:46 Although some of his records have since been reinstated, The King of Kong helped bring
13:49 down the gamer royalty Mitchell built an entrepreneurial brand on.
14:07 Making a Murderer - Ken Kratz
14:08 As District Attorney for Calumet County, Wisconsin, Ken Kratz landed the famous murder convictions
14:13 of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in 2007.
14:25 Controversy that these may have been wrongful convictions eventually went global with the
14:29 release of the Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer.
14:36 Kratz's glory was short-lived anyway, as a harassment scandal had cost him his office
14:40 in 2010.
14:41 But after the documentary's examination of possible judicial impropriety, Kratz faced
14:46 death threats and a barrage of negative Yelp reviews.
14:48 He has since lost his law license.
14:50 Kratz continues to grant public interviews and has been working on a book to dispute
14:53 the show's supposedly flimsy evidence.
15:05 The court of public opinion has nonetheless not been kind to him.
15:08 Going Clear - Scientology and the Prison of Belief
15:11 Former Church of Scientology members
15:13 Alex Gibney's documentary on the mysterious Church of Scientology was praised by general
15:17 audiences, but received a very different reaction from Scientologists.
15:33 Gibney has expressed remorse that many people who worked on Going Clear subsequently suffered
15:37 retaliation from Church officials.
15:53 Former members whose interviews exposed the Church's history and controversial practices
15:57 got it the worst.
15:58 Filmmaker Paul Haggis, journalist Tony Ortega, and others reported being surveilled.
16:02 A private investigator also confessed to being hired to hack into several email accounts.
16:07 These all seemed to be consistent with the disturbing stories exposed throughout the
16:11 documentary.
16:20 For all the importance of Going Clear in religious debate, its effects extended far beyond the
16:24 current Scientology congregation.
16:27 The Show About the Show - Kava Zahedi
16:29 Arguably the most daring project from meta-filmmaker Kava Zahedi was The Show About the Show, in
16:34 which each episode documented the making of the previous episode.
16:45 Released online and on Brooklyn cable access, the niche program turned out to be more dramatic
16:49 than anyone expected.
16:51 The intrusive and candid production imploded Zahedi's already rocky marriage, plus a
16:55 subsequent romance.
17:08 He claims that his whole personal life has been destroyed by its own documentation.
17:12 The Show About the Show wound up being a reality show that truly lives up to the genre's
17:16 name.
17:17 Zahedi does not regret the project, however.
17:23 In fact, he's trying to keep it going totally independently.
17:26 Although he'll be the first to admit that it upended his whole world.
17:30 Overnight - Troy Duffy
17:31 Despite the very limited release of The Boondock Saints, writer/director Troy Duffy became a
17:36 cult sensation.
17:41 Fans got to go behind the scenes with his filmmaking and music breakout in the documentary
17:45 Overnight.
17:46 This showcased Duffy as an undeniable talent, but whose contentious behavior eventually
17:50 led to his downfall.
18:03 His antagonism towards his veteran producers ultimately led to Miramax dropping his movie,
18:08 and Harvey Weinstein having him blacklisted.
18:10 Sure, Overnight is a record of Duffy destroying his own life, but he claims that the documentary
18:14 showed his inexcusable behavior out of context.
18:17 It certainly cost him the potential salvation of public sympathy.
18:28 Duffy has since made only one other movie, The Boondock Saints 2.
18:32 The Staircase - Michael Peterson and His Family
18:34 The French docuseries Soupçon, better known as The Staircase, was groundbreaking in its
18:38 intimate coverage of an infamous trial.
18:41 One of American novelist Michael Peterson for the murder of his wife Kathleen.
18:54 After the show was released, its massive success destroyed any hope of privacy for the grieving
18:58 family.
18:59 Peterson's conviction was later overturned, and he eventually accepted an Alford plea
19:03 for a lesser charge.
19:15 This allowed him to maintain his innocence over the crime.
19:17 Netflix then released an update of The Staircase in 2018, inviting social media hostility on
19:22 the Petersons.
19:23 This was further addressed in the 2022 documentary's subject.
19:32 Whatever the truth about Kathleen Peterson's death, The Staircase succeeded in turning
19:36 a family tragedy into a public inquiry.
19:39 The Square - Ahmed Hassan
19:41 Following the deposition of corrupt President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypt endured years
19:46 of political and civil unrest.
20:01 Jahan Nujaim's The Square explored this gruesome period through the perspective of
20:04 its own cinematographer, Ahmed Hassan.
20:07 The filmmaker and democracy activist knew the risks in becoming a public figure of resistance.
20:12 While the Egyptian crisis ended in 2014, Hassan wasn't around for this.
20:22 Instead, he had been exiled from Egypt, fearing retaliation from the authoritarian regime.
20:31 He also had limited contact with his family out of concern for their safety.
20:35 The Square may have won Hassan an Emmy for his cinematography, but the project seemingly
20:39 left him worse off, as he was driven from his homeland.
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20:58 The Jinx - The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst - Robert Durst
21:01 In 1982, real estate heir Robert Durst was investigated for the murder of his wife, Kathleen
21:06 McCormack.
21:12 He was eventually brought to trial in 2003 for another murder, amidst rumors of a third.
21:17 Durst refused to do interviews after his acquittal, but was so impressed by All Good Things, a
21:21 movie based on his bizarre story, that he agreed to sit down with filmmaker Andrew Jarecki.
21:33 The docuseries The Jinx ended with Durst forgetting that he was still mic'd up, seemingly admitting
21:45 to all three murders.
22:00 This may have just been in jest, but Durst was still charged with one of the killings.
22:03 He was finally convicted in 2021.
22:06 While true crime documentaries may be accused of consequential biases, it's hard to argue
22:10 with Durst's self-incrimination.
22:11 Do you feel bad for these individuals?
22:14 Let us know in the comments below.
22:31 Thanks for watching.
22:41 (upbeat music)