Just Another Missing Kid
Just Another Missing Kid | |
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Directed by | John Zaritsky |
Produced by | Glenn Sarty John Zaritsky |
Cinematography | John Griffin |
Edited by | Gordon McClennan |
Production company | |
Distributed by | CBC |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Just Another Missing Kid is a 1981 Canadian documentary film, directed by John Zaritsky, about the search for a missing teenager.
Summary[]
Eric Wilson had left his native Ottawa in July 1978 in a Volkswagen camper on a trip to Boulder, Colorado. Somewhere in Nebraska he disappeared. The movie traces how his family and a private investigator work to find out what had happened. The film focuses on how little help the various police forces were and is an indictment of the apathy and bureaucracy of the legal system on both sides of the border. Raymond Hatch and Bertram Davis, hitchhikers Wilson had picked up, eventually confessed to the murder. The long-time criminal and drifter Hatch, who had committed the murder, was sentenced to 26 years in prison, but was released after serving 13. In 1994 he stabbed his girlfriend with a knife and was convicted of assault for which he served 9 months in jail. In a follow-up to the story from 1995, the fifth estate reported that Hatch had resumed his drifting. He died in 2000.[1]
Accolades[]
Originally produced by CBC Television for the documentary news program The Fifth Estate, it was broadcast on CBC television to much acclaim in 1981. It was released in theatres in the United States in 1982. In Canada it won an ACTRA Award for the best television program and garnered a number of international awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for 1982.[2]
Controversy[]
In this film, Zaritsky broke new ground for documentaries by having the interview subjects recreate their actions for the camera. This caused some controversy as some critics and filmmakers felt these recreations did not make it a true documentary. In later years Zaritsky himself agreed the technique should not be used.[citation needed] However it has since been widely used by other documentary filmmakers.
Adaptation[]
The story was later re-told in fictionalized form in a made-for-television movie called Into Thin Air. The film starred Ellen Burstyn as the mother and was aired in 1985.
Preservation[]
The Academy Film Archive preserved Just Another Missing Kid in 2007.[3]
References[]
- ^ "CBC News: the fifth estate - Just Another Missing Kid - Update". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
- ^ 1983|Oscars.org
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
External links[]
- 1981 films
- English-language films
- Canadian films
- Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
- Canadian documentary films
- Documentary films about children
- Documentary films about crime in Canada
- Documentary films about law enforcement in Canada
- Films directed by John Zaritsky
- 1980s documentary films
- Murder in Nebraska
- Canadian documentary film stubs
- 1980s Canadian film stubs