Part B: Influences

I have been endlessly inspired by ‘The Keepers’, a Netflix original documentary that chronicles the murder mystery surrounding the deaths of two women in Baltimore in 1969. One of the victims was a Catholic nun and teacher, sister Cathy Cesnik. Director Ryan White worked in collaboration with two former students of Cathy’s who have been committed to solving her murder. ‘The Keepers’ sets itself apart because White takes his lead from Gemma and Abbie, two amateur investigators. The series chronicles the investigative work they have done and what inspired them in this process.

Though the documentary is a murder mystery, it’s also a spotlight on sexual abuse in the Catholic church and those in the community who enabled it to happen. White collaborators directly with survivors, collating together many different stories to put together the pieces of the puzzle. ‘The Keepers’ challenges typical documentary practices because it is such cohesive storytelling. The series is not just about the murders, but the context of the wider community and the stories of the many survivors who were subject to abuse. ‘The Keepers’ is not just concerned with summarising everything within a neat package – it is long, complex and covers a wide spectrum of events over many years. The viewer gets the impression that the documentary is for the community it is based on as much as it is for the average viewer.

I would like to be committed to this kind of philosophy when it comes to making a documentary. While ‘The Keepers’ has been commercially successful, it achieves much more than this. The producers of the series were truly committed to remaining loyal to the local survivors while taking on an institution as large as the Catholic church. It is a work of true activism and an extremely brave one at that.