Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, directed by Nick Broomfield, documents his efforts to interview real serial killer Aileen Wuornos, released in November 1992. Wuornos had confessed in January 1991 to seven murders committed between 1989 and 1990. The film captures her adoptive mother figure Arlene Pralle, who legally adopted her and tried selling her story to talk shows and tabloids, at one point asking the director for 25,000 dollars, later reduced to 10,000. Because the film contained footage showing the inadequacy of Wuornos's original attorney, Steve Glazer, it was used as evidence by the defense in her 2001 case. The film received a Grand Jury Prize nomination for documentary at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. Broomfield made a second documentary with Joan Churchill in 2003, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Who it's for: anyone curious about a documentary that captures the process of interviewing a real serial killer, showing directly how the media and people around her sold her story, later used as courtroom evidence. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a documentary focused purely on the crimes themselves, since this focuses on the media's and inner circle's exploitation of the case.