Joe Berlinger

Joseph "Joe" Berlinger (born October 30, 1961) is an American documentary film-maker who, in collaboration with Bruce Sinofsky, has created such films as Paradise Lost about the West Memphis 3, Brother's Keeper, Some Kind of Monster, and Crude. In collaboration with journalist Greg Milner, Berlinger has also written a book called Metallica: This Monster Lives, which is about his journey from making the poorly received Blair Witch 2 to creating Some Kind of Monster with Metallica, one of the world's most famous metal bands. Berlinger has also worked in TV series such as Homicide: Life on the Street, D.C. and FanClub. The first movie Berlinger directed, in 1992, was the documentary My Brother's Keeper, which tells the story of Delbart Ward, an elderly man in Munnsville, New York, who was charged with second-degree murder following the death of his brother William. Chicago Tribune film critic Roger Ebert, in his review of the movie, called it "an extraordinary documentary about what happened next, as a town banded together to stop what folks saw as a miscarriage of justice." He graduated from Colgate University in 1983. He lives with his wife and daughters in New York.

Works

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey
7.4

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey

Police missteps and a media circus derailed the JonBenét Ramsey murder case. This definitive docuseries chronicles the decades-long quest for justice.

Release Date:2024-11-25

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:19

Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial
7.1

Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial

This gripping docuseries examines Adolf Hitler and the Nazis' rise, rule and reckoning from pre-WWII to the Holocaust to the Nuremberg trials.

Release Date:2024-06-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:34

Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer
6.9

Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer

In 2012, a string of grisly murders sent shock waves through the Berlin party scene. The killer remained at large — until one of his targets survived.

Release Date:2024-04-03

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:14

Lust for Fear - True Crime Fascination

True crime formats are a guarantor for success for TV channels, publishers and radio stations. Whether fiction or documentary, every serial killer has their own movie on streaming providers. An interest in crime is part of human nature. The question "Who did it?" keeps the audience hooked to their screens or headphones. Fear and thrills provide an endorphin rush. True crime fans put themselves in the shoes of the investigators and empathize with the victims. They try to learn to arm themselves for their own lives in order to better recognize real dangers. Where does the hype around true crime come from?

Release Date:2023-11-03

Character:Self

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street
7.0

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street

This docuseries follows the rise and fall of financier Bernie Madoff, who orchestrated one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in Wall Street history.

Release Date:2023-01-04

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:4

Vote Count:46

Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields
6.2

Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields

An overgrown field and a stretch of highway connect a series of grisly murders spanning several decades as grieving families search for answers.

Release Date:2022-11-29

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:60

Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes
7.9

Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to his gruesome crimes in unguarded interviews, offering an unsettling view into a disturbed mind.

Release Date:2022-10-07

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:239

Shadowland
6.5

Shadowland

Award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger sends documentary teams across the country to uncover the real reasons Americans can’t agree on what’s true and what’s not.

Release Date:2022-09-21

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:6

Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes
7.4

Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes

He dined with the powerful. He preyed on the vulnerable. Beneath a smiling exterior was the horrifying darkness of a sadistic serial killer.

Release Date:2022-04-20

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:165

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer
6.8

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer

In 1970s NYC, the “Torso Killer” preys on women to fulfill his grotesque fantasies while eluding police. A docuseries dive into crime’s darkest places.

Release Date:2021-12-29

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:86

Confronting a Serial Killer
5.4

Confronting a Serial Killer

The timely story of the unprecedented relationship between acclaimed New York Times best-selling author and memoirist Jillian Lauren and the most prolific serial killer in American history, Samuel Little, and her race against time to identify his victims before it's too late. As she slips deeper into his sordid world, Jillian realizes that she may become, psychologically, Little's last victim.

Release Date:2021-04-18

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:5

Vote Count:10

Murder Among the Mormons
7.0

Murder Among the Mormons

High-stakes exploits turn deadly — and shake a global church to its core — in this extraordinary true crime story.

Release Date:2021-03-03

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:77

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
7.0

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The notorious Cecil Hotel grows in infamy when guest Elisa Lam vanishes. A dive into crime's darkest places.

Release Date:2021-02-10

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:4

Vote Count:343

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
7.1

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

Stories from survivors fuel this docuseries examining how convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and power to carry out his abuses.

Release Date:2020-05-27

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:4

Vote Count:370

The Longest Wave

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger travels the globe with legendary windsurfer and pioneering waterman Robby Naish, a 24-time world champion whose quest to master the world's longest waves unexpectedly reveals his vulnerabilities as a competitor, mentor and father. THE LONGEST WAVE transcends the action sports genre by capturing obstacles outside of the legendary athlete's professional life in an intimate, cinéma-vérité style, revealing Naish balancing the pursuit of excellence at sea with the demands of life's complications on land.

Release Date:2019-11-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

8.3

I Am Not Alone

On Easter 2018, a man put on a backpack and began to walk across Armenia. His mission: to inspire a velvet revolution and topple the corrupt regime that enjoys absolute power in his post-soviet nation. With total access to all key players, this documentary tells the story of what happened in the next 40 days.

Release Date:2019-09-07

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:7

7.0

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.

Release Date:2019-05-02

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Colorado Jailhouse Reporter

Vote Count:3369

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
7.5

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

A unique look inside the mind of an infamous serial killer with this cinematic self-portrait crafted from statements made by Ted Bundy, including present-day interviews, archival footage and audio recordings from death row.

Release Date:2019-01-24

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:4

Vote Count:332

6.2

Paris to Pittsburgh

Paris to Pittsburgh brings to life the impassioned efforts of individuals who are battling the most severe threats of climate change in their own backyards. Set against the national debate over the United States' energy future - and the Trump administration's explosive decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement - the film captures what's at stake for communities around the country and the inspiring ways Americans are responding.

Release Date:2018-12-12

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:8

Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders

The film festival cut of mini-series Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders, a highly detailed reconstruction of the infamous Clutter family murders, which inspired Truman Capote’s bestseller In Cold Blood, directed by Oscar nominee Joe Berlinger.

Release Date:2018-06-02

Department:Directing

Job:Director

4.8

Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial & Depiction

INTENT TO DESTROY embeds with a historic feature production as a springboard to explore the violent history of the Armenian Genocide and legacy of Turkish suppression and denial over the past century.

Release Date:2017-11-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:4

6.5

Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru

Granted unprecedented access, Berlinger captures renowned life and business strategist Tony Robbins behind the scenes of his mega seminar Date with Destiny, pulling back the curtain on this life-altering and controversial event, the zealous participants and the man himself.

Release Date:2016-07-15

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:100

Judgment Day: Prison or Parole?

Judgment Day: Prison or Parole?

Each year in America, 85% of inmates seeking early release will be denied, but 15% will be released from prison before serving their full sentences. Two thirds of these parolees will commit a crime that sends them back behind bars, making the decision to release an inmate early an agonizing dilemma. Judgment Day: Prison or Parole is an investigative series that takes viewers inside the high stakes decisions made by parole boards everyday. When 95% of inmates in the US will eventually be placed back into society, parole board members must decide who should remain incarcerated and who is safe for release.

Release Date:2016-05-22

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:3

Ubah!

You may not know her name, but chances are you have seen Ubah Hassan in commercials for Macy's or Ralph Lauren. This short film takes you into the world of this up-and-coming model, whose life has not always been picture perfect.

Release Date:2015-03-25

Department:Directing

Job:Director

We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss

Everyone’s talking about it, but who can explain it? Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan have partnered to produce WE THE ECONOMY 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford to Miss. Each film is helmed by an acclaimed filmmaker, each with their own creative vision. The series aims to drive awareness and establish a better understanding of the U.S. economy. Told through animation, comedy, musical, non-fiction, and scripted films, WE THE ECONOMY seeks to demystify a complicated topic while empowering the public to take control of their own economic futures.

Release Date:2014-10-21

Department:Directing

Job:Director

6.0

Metallica: This Monster Lives

Ten years after the release of their controversial documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky catch up with the members of the band at the 2013 Toronto film festival world premiere of their 3D feature film, Metallica Through the Never, using the premiere of the new film as a springboard to reflect upon the legacy of Some Kind of Monster, its influence on the band and their experiences during the decade since its release.

Release Date:2014-06-02

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:12

6.5

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger

A documentary that captures the sensational trial of infamous gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, using the legal proceedings as a springboard to explore allegations of corruption within the highest levels of law enforcement. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger examines Bulger's relationship with the FBI and Department of Justice that allowed him to reign over a criminal empire in Boston for decades.

Release Date:2014-01-18

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:75

6.8

Hank: 5 Years from the Brink

For three weeks in September 2008, one person was charged with preventing the collapse of the global economy. No one understood the financial markets better than Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. In Hank: Five Years from the Brink, Paulson tells the complete story of how he persuaded banks, Congress and presidential candidates to sign off on nearly $1 trillion in bailouts - even as he found the behavior that led to the crisis, and the bailouts themselves, morally reprehensible. Directed by Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost Trilogy, Some Kind of Monster), the film features Paulson, and his wife of 40 years, Wendy. it's a riveting portrait of leadership under unimaginable pressure - and a marriage under unfathomable circumstances.

Release Date:2013-09-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:7

7.4

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

A further investigation into the arrest of three teenagers convicted of killing three young boys in Arkansas who spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released after new DNA evidence indicated they may be innocent.

Release Date:2012-10-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:136

7.2

Paul Simon: Under African Skies

Paul Simon returns to South Africa to explore the incredible journey of his historic Graceland album, including the political backlash he received for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime. On the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon's GRACELAND, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger offers a glimpse at the controversy surrounding the decision to record the album in South Africa despite a UN boycott of the nation, which was aimed at ending apartheid. In the run-up to an eagerly anticipated reunion concert, Simon, Quincy Jones, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney and others reflect on the decision to record with local artists in South Africa, and the cultural impact of the album that delivered such hits as "I Know What I Know" and "You Can Call Me Al."

Release Date:2012-05-11

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:15

6.1

Crude

The story of lawsuit by tens of thousands of Ecuadorans against Chevron over contamination of the Ecuadorean Amazon.

Release Date:2009-09-09

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:11

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America
2.0

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America is a ten-hour, ten-part television miniseries that aired on the History Channel from April 9 through April 14, 2006. The material was later adapted and published as a book by the same title.

Release Date:2006-04-09

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:1

Infrarouge
4.0

Infrarouge

French current affair show

Release Date:2006-02-02

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:3

6.0

Gray Matter

In the spring of 2002, filmmaker Joe Berlinger traveled to Vienna to witness the burial of the preserved brains of over 700 children killed at a Nazi "euthanasia" clinic. GRAY MATTER chronicles the filmmaker's personal journey as he searches for Dr. Heinrich Gross -- known as the "Austrian Dr. Mengele" -- who allegedly participated in these killings. Along the way Berlinger meets survivors of the clinic, as well as other remarkable individuals, who are confronting a nation that has only begun to grapple with its denial of this horrific legacy.

Release Date:2004-07-21

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Self

Vote Count:1

7.0

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

After bassist Jason Newsted quits the band in 2001, heavy metal superstars Metallica realize that they need an intervention. In this revealing documentary, filmmakers follow the three rock stars as they hire a group therapist and grapple with 20 years of repressed anger and aggression. Between searching for a replacement bass player, creating a new album and confronting their personal demons, the band learns to open up in ways they never thought possible.

Release Date:2004-06-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:222

imagine…
5.6

imagine…

The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural world.

Release Date:2003-06-11

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:7

Judgment Day: Should the Guilty Go Free

Each year in the United States, over 200,000 prisoners face a parole board that must make the difficult judgment of whether these convicted criminals are ready to gain their freedom and return to society. This documentary focuses on three inmates in Louisiana, Nevada, and Massachusetts with a range of chilling crimes - a father's murder by his troubled son, a crime of passion by a respected NASA scientist, and a shooting/robbery on the streets of Las Vegas. Incorporating interviews of key characters with extensive testimony footage and reenactment sequences that explore the life and crime of the inmate, the film vividly examines the conflicting needs of the victim, the criminal, and the community while testing our own notions of justice.

Release Date:2003-02-03

Department:Directing

Job:Director

The Virtual Corpse

Documentary about the first human to donate his body to science so that it could be studied in the form of a 3D database of the entire anatomy that is available to view online. Convicted killer Joseph Paul Jernigan donated his body to science shortly before he was executed in 1993 and this documentary examines what took place after his death by lethal injection.

Release Date:2003-01-26

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

4.3

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

Young adults become fascinated by the events of the three missing filmmakers in Maryland, so they decide to go into the same woods and find out what really happened.

Release Date:2000-10-27

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Burkittsville Tourist

Vote Count:837

7.1

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Revisiting the 1994 Arkansas murder of three 8-year-old boys and the three teenagers convicted of the crime. A follow up to Paradise Lost, Revelations features new interviews with the convicted men, as well as with the original judge and police investigators.

Release Date:2000-07-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:115

7.6

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.

Release Date:1996-12-03

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Self (voice)

Vote Count:183

Homicide: Life on the Street
8.0

Homicide: Life on the Street

An American police procedural chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit.

Release Date:1993-01-31

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:130

7.0

Brother's Keeper

This documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky details the murder trial of Delbert Ward. Delbert was a member of a family of four elderly brothers, working as semi-literate farmers and living together in isolation from the rest of society until William's death.

Release Date:1992-09-09

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:54

Outrageous Taxi Stories

An exploration of New York's cabbie subculture.

Release Date:1989-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Fail-Safe

A “fail-safe” mechanical failure jams the United States military’s chain of command and sends the country hurtling toward nuclear war. A contemporary remake of Sidney Lumet's 1964 Cold War thriller based on Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's 1962 novel.

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Slay the Dreamer

Based on the life of Rev. James Lawson, the civil rights activist who was friend and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

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