Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

British filmmaker Nick Broomfield's 1992 Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer documented how the sensational media coverage of America's first female serial killer may have compromised her defense, since everyone around her--from her mother to the police--seemed more interested in selling their stories to the highest bidder than in finding the truth of Wuornos' guilt. In Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Broomfield, with co-director Joan Churchill, returns to the Wuornos case when he's subpoenaed to appear at the final judicial appeal before her scheduled execution. From his court testimony to his final interviews with Wuornos (her appeals were denied and she was executed) to his explorations of her past--a sad litany of lifelong sexual and physical abuse, resulting in mental illness--this startling and disturbing film raises new questions (while also reexamining old ones) about the integrity of her prosecution, and whether her claims of self-defense weren't supportable. Clearly personal for Broomfield, the film is as much a pointed exploration of a documentarian's involvement in his subject matter as it is an angry indictment of the American judicial system, seen with the un-jaundiced eye of an outsider. Since Wuornos was also the subject of the 2003 feature film Monster, starring Oscar winner Charlize Theron, this is sure to be of interest to many. Recommended. (M. Johanson)