The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey - Documentary
E01 · Episode 1 - In This Episode Investigators tour a reconstructed version of the Ramsey house, hoping to gain insight into what happened the night of JonBenét's murder.
E02 · Episode 2: - Investigators continue to re-examine the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, reviewing the evidence and suspects in the case.
The name of the documentary is "The case of: JonBenet Ramsey" which is a documentary consisting of two episodes released on 18th and 19th September, 2016 that was produced by CBS and is a Darnay Hoffman and Michael Piehl film. The documentary is based on the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. JonBenet Ramsey was murdered on 25th December, 1996 in Boulder, Colorado. The purpose of the documentary was to find out the murderer of JonBenet Ramsey. It is suggested that the murder was committed by her elder brother Bruke Ramsey while some suggest that it was done by Patsy and John Ramsey suggesting child abuse. The child was reported to be missing and then her parents found her dead body in their house basement. Gary Oliva (paedophile), however, admitted that he killed the girl because he was in love with her and is serving a 10-year imprisonment. Some theories suggest that it is a false confession to hide the truth.
There are various techniques used in the documentaries that attract the attention of viewers. Some of them are camera, music, props, lighting, editing or even facial expressions. Visuals being the most important part in the documentaries are affected by the camera takes and angles. Camera is used to re-enact the scenes to create actuality in the documentaries. To improve the visual impact, the makes also use montages by conveying the visuals in a defined order. It helps in better indication of changing time and places in the documentary. It helps the audience in better understanding the documentary, the story and helps the audience to interpret the messages of the characters. Music also is another important technique in the form of voice-overs used in the documentaries as along with visuals, background music tends to create certain emotions and affect the mood of the viewers. (Khaled, 2018) It intensifies the character's inner thoughts. It turns the minimum dialogues into form if poetry and helps in propelling the story quickly forward or slowing down. It tends to act on the sub-conscious mind of the audience giving depth to whatever they are experiencing. The makers of documentaries use voice overs, direct or indirect interviews, artificial footages or even re-enact the scenes. The makers also take interviews of the people on whom the documentary is based so they can directly convey the facts to the public. (FRANCIS, 2016)The interviewer is the maker of the film who asks questions to the interviewee that brings more realism in the documentary. Exposition is another technique used by the makers when the documentary begins. It helps the audience to understand and interpret the contents in the film by giving them a glance to the themes of the documentary. Another technique used is 'actuality' wherein the actual characters are used in the documentary for conveying the stories. They clearly define actual events but most of the documentaries are a mix of actuality and commentary. Lighting also is another technique used by the makers to enhance the story and the emotions. Light can affect the audience by improving the sense of meaning to the film and also helps in creation of visual mood and atmosphere for the audience. The makers generally use harsh lights with focus being on the parts they want the audience to focus on dimming the background lights. This also helps the audience to better interpret the scene in a film by bringing their focus towards the main story. It helps by acting on intensity of the scene.
One of the most important part in the documentary of JonBenet Ramsey was the suspense of who the murderer would be. The documentary is in two parts, first one being the focus on the Ramsey family and the other theory, that is part two, is the intruder theory. The first suspects where the family members as the police found a ransom note demanding $1,15,000 in return for their daughter that was unreasonably long and hand-written. The pen and paper used was also from the house. The other part of the theory tries to convince people with the intruder being the murderer. The documentary involves interviews with the family members including John Ramsey and Cindy and Mark. The documentary tries to prove the Ramsey family as innocent considering the rule "innocent until proven guilty". As the documentary focuses on the intruder being the murderer, it tends to ignore several other facts that could possibly held the family members guilty. One instance is the ransom note found in the house. The documentary states one sided story with the focus being on the detective Smith who is also found saying that family couldn't be involved in committing such a crime. The documentary focuses on Smit saving the lives of Ramsey family members with a biased view of opinion and Smit might have influenced Alex Hunter in not involving the family members. The documentary tries to convince people with a group of people trying to prove the family members guilty. However, the end of the documentary convinces the viewers that the family members could not be involved and it was a crime committed by the intruder. The documentary also includes an interview with John Ramsey wherein he tries to say that the documentary that it was a 'real tragedy' that the mother was considered awful, however the family would not stop trying to prove themselves until proven guilty. But the documentary also states that this mystery cannot be solved ever. (Hay, 2021)To conclude, we can say that the documentary is biased from the point of view of Smit, not considering enough facts and evidences against the Ramsey family. There are several instances where in Smit considers himself to be right and tries to convince the audience that this is the only perspective of the story. The other perspective is tried to be ignored blaming those accusations are being made on the family members to prove them guilty. The documentary also tries to convince that the mother and the elder brother were not involved at all in the murder mystery and tries to prove them right. But, as a documentary, the producer should have stated all the facts rightly without biased opinions.
According to me, the documentary of "The case of: JonBenet Ramsey" is a must read for the other students. The documentary provides us with the chance to open to various perspectives while solving any case. I think the overall purpose of the documentary is to bring new perspectives of various people to the case. While at some places it looks like the documentary tries to have a biased opinion trying to prove the family members not guilty, it ignores several facts including the knowledge of sleeping habits of all the family members being known to the murderer if the murderer was an intruder. There are cases wherein it looks like Smit has a biased opinion regarding the murder mystery and the family also says that he saved them. At places, it looks like Smit tried his best to prove the family members not guilty. However, I think all the perspectives and views should have been clearly stated in the documentary. The focus should not have been only on one opinion. In consideration to this, I would recommend the viewers to watch the documentary considering all the possible scenarios that would make you feel more inclined towards it. It also brought the aspect of curiosity inside me of knowing the actual truth. However, the actual truth is not known to anyone. Although, an intruder admitted the crime a few years back and is imprisoned for 10 years, it still leaves a question of if the truth was suppressed for the sake for closing the case? The documentary helped me to be non-judgemental about various scenarios in my life. It taught me to be open to all the ideas and listen to all the parties of any case to understand the details. Any decision should not be made in hurry and we need not be biased towards different aspects of our lives. Listening is the key to improve understanding. Practising being unbiased is very important as it would help us to grow individually and personally. We would better be able to emphatize and be able to improve our knowledge towards different things. When we stay biased towards one opinion, we tend to ignore and not even listen to the actual issues that might increase or escalate the issues further. However, if we improve our listening and being non-judgemental skills, we can reduce several issues by better understanding. The documentary also helps us in learning to stay aware in various situations. Awareness is of prime importance to solve any case. Small details need to be considered that would help in solving various cases and issues in lives.
To conclude, the most important learnings from this documentary have been being non-judgemental, unbiased, improving listening skills and awareness that would help us to grow individually and personally and also help to improve self-esteem and trust.