Muta’Ali Muhammad and Andrew Jarecki on the common critique of being ‘exploitative’ | Variety & Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit
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00:00One of the things that we've talked about a lot in true crime,
00:02I mean, people call it this idea of a global phenomenon, right?
00:06So, as it's something that is both considered news and entertainment,
00:10the criticism it's received pretty strongly is that
00:13it can sometimes be exploitative of both victims and families,
00:17people who are surrounding it.
00:18Have you guys ever encountered that critique
00:21in, you know, kind of sharing your work?
00:23And does it inform your process at all?
00:25Yeah, we were just talking about that earlier.
00:27Yeah, we were just talking about this in the group.
00:28On the flat level, my father says,
00:32alright, you're exploiting these people.
00:35And he just likes to play with words,
00:37because technically you kind of are creating a product
00:40about these people's story.
00:42So I think you've got to accept that that is part of it.
00:45But you're doing a service.
00:47Every documentary that I've done over the last five, seven years
00:53hasn't been my idea.
00:55I've been sort of a resource,
00:57and I'm grateful that people consider me such.
01:01They come to me and say, can you help me tell this story?
01:04And so after that, and like I said,
01:06I'll speak to the people who are involved.
01:08And with Yusuf Hawkins' storm over Brooklyn,
01:10you know, we didn't have any funding at first.
01:12We did it independent for a while.
01:14And then HBO was the network that understood
01:17the power of the story and the necessity, the need to tell it.
01:21But before that, we interviewed a few people just on our own dollar.
01:24And once we interviewed Yusuf's mother,
01:27and I'm sitting there across from her,
01:28and I'm asking her to tell this story,
01:32I had to tell it.
01:33I had to tell it for her.
01:35They had for 30 plus years not had the chance
01:38to get it off their chest, to have their opinions be expressed.
01:41And they had some time to process it.
01:43So it's a give and take, I think.
01:45So technically, yeah, you could check the box
01:47that things are being, there's money being made.
01:51It is a product.
01:52But there's also, there are benefits to it.
01:56All around, to the audience, to the community,
01:58to the family, everywhere.
02:01So, you know, I'll eat that if that's a criticism, you know?
02:04You know, I was just talking to Zan Parker,
02:06who I met very first time when I went to visit Al Maisel's,
02:10because I was looking for his advice about this project
02:13that later became Capturing the Freedmen's.
02:15And I remember Al just saying, you know,
02:18I said, I want to make sure that I don't exploit these people.
02:22They've been through a lot, people on both sides of the story.
02:25And he said, nobody wants to die without telling their story.
02:30And you're doing something very good for them.
02:32It doesn't mean, you know, if you trick them,
02:34or you are mean to them, or you don't respect them,
02:37obviously, it's like anything else, you know,
02:39then that's a negative.
02:40But most of the time, they want to tell their story.
02:43And if you're really going to listen, you know,
02:46you're not going to rush them through the interview,
02:48but you're going to give it the time that it requires.
02:50They feel very relieved.
02:52And then especially later, you know,
02:54every once in a while, somebody says, oh, that was,
02:56you edited the good parts, and, you know, you didn't make me,
03:00you didn't let me talk about how much I hated my mother.
03:03David Freedman said that to me once.
03:05But, you know, for the most part, they feel heard, you know,
03:08as long as you care about it.