The Case Against Adnan Syed follows the investigation explored in podcast Serial.
Director Amy Berg discusses the hazards of true crime
In 2014, podcastSerialbecame a massive international phenomenon.
Hes still behind bars, though many think hes innocent.
Most important for me was to bring Hae Min Lees story to life, Berg tells us.
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Sarah was not involved in the series at all.
So thats how it came to life.
We picked up where the podcast left off.
We really started the story at the PCR hearing.
We were documenting everything that happened with this case in Baltimore from February 2016 to now.
That was really important to me.
I just wanted to double-check that we didnt set the series up with that.
The decision to animate Hae Min Lee was really fascinating.
Can you tell me how that decision came about?
Yeah, I had seenDiary of a Teenage Girlthe summer before I spoke to the producers.
After looking at her journals in the process of choosing excerpts that I thought was really important.
We collaborated on that whole storyline for over three years now.
There is a really fascinating series of interviews with Haes friends.
Did they take much convincing to take part?
In terms of the interviews with her friends, it took a while to build trust.
I was mostly speaking with them on a research basis in the beginning.
Then as we went along, some of them decided that they wanted to participate.
The pieces with Jenn Pusateri were particularly interesting and at the time she seemed to find it quite stressful.
Again, how was that?
Jenn is really stuck in her life as a result of having involvement in this case.
She definitely wanted to get some things off her chest.
Shes called me at different points over the past three and a half years wanting to talk.
Then she disappeared for a while.
Its hard to keep up with Jenn.
Poor Jenn has been victimised by being a part of an investigation that shes just confused by.
you might see how it affected her, physically and mentally, its very stressful for her.
The impact of the podcast is something that you talk about in the documentary a lot.
Was that an important part to bring to life for you?
I think there might be a mistake, I want to test this evidence.
I want to get to the bottom of it so that theres not so much doubt.
But it just never happens.
Did you and the crew talk a lot about what might have actually happened to Hae?
There are people that have theories and tell you things that youre not sure if theyre true.
Do you have any theories about the specifics?
Is that something that you were conscious of and how important was that to you?
I mean, I had four hours to tell this story and I wanted to create extra.
Why do you think people are so obsessed with true crime?
I have one of those.
Given that you worked on it for so long, you must have absolutely reels and reels of footage.
Depending on what happens, is there scope to carry on the story?
Is there scope to reveal any more of the footage that youve got?
I dont know when this will end.
Was there anyone that you wanted to talk to, for this one, that you werent able to?
And was there anyone that you did speak to that asked to be cut?
There are a few people that I still wish that I could talk to.
I, of course, would love to speak to the detectives.
We didnt speak to any detectives besides Detective Massey.
We were struck by the silence.
How do you choose which case is going to be something that you will follow?
I usually respond through passion or curiosity.
Because ofSerial, Adnans case was very well known.
How did that affect you as a filmmaker?
There was so much coverage that a lot of people were just wanting it to go away.
So that was one of the bigger issues, I think.
What has the response to the documentary been like so far?
Its really interesting and exciting to see the response so far.
I hope that theyll continue to reveal interesting things for everybody.
The Case Against Adnan Syedis out now on HBO.
The documentary will debut in the U.K. via Sky Atlantic and streaming serviceNOW TVon 1 April.
