O.J.: Made in America – An Archival Case Study

O.J.: Made in America – An Archival Case Study 

The 2017 season of documentary programming kicks off with O.J.: Made in America – An Archival Case Study. This program will feature archival producer Nina Krstic and producer Caroline Waterlow as they take the audiences through the process of finding and using archival materials in their award-winning film directed by Ezra Edelman for ESPN’s 30 for 30 program. Topics to be covered include local archives, network archives, found footage, licensing, fair use, and budgeting for archival.

It is perhaps the defining cultural tale of 20th-century America, one that centers around two of our country’s greatest fixations: race and celebrity. Directed by Peabody and Emmy winner Ezra Edelman, O.J.: Made in America explores these themes in tracing a personal journey, from how Orenthal James Simpson first became a football star, to why the country fell in love with him off the field, to his being accused of murdering his ex-wife, his subsequent acquittal and why he is sitting in jail 20 years later for another crime.

Upon its release A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, “Staggering. Has the grandeur and authority of the best long-form nonfiction. If it were a book, it could sit on the shelf alongside The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer and the great biographical works of Robert Caro. It’s very much a film, though, a feat of tireless research, dogged interviewing, and skillful editing. Some of the images have an uncanny familiarity, while others land with almost revelatory force.”

Nina Krstic is an award-winning producer and director. Most recently Krstic produced the critically acclaimed eight hour documentary O.J. Made in America, which screened at Sundance, Tribeca, and Hot Docs before being distributed in theaters nationwide. O.J. Made in America has also won many prestigious awards including the Gotham Awards, National Board of Review, Cinema Eye, and the International Documentary Association amongst others. Her Sundance Film Festival 2013 directorial debut feature documentary, 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film screened in movie theaters nationally and is being distributed by Participant Media and broadcast on the Pivot Network. Prior to that Krstic field produced episodes of the Emmy-winning series Retro Report produced for the New York Times and was also the archival producer for numerous award winning productions including Constitution U.S.A. with Peter Sagal, 1964, Thomas Edison, Big Burn, and Orchestra of Exiles amongst others.

Caroline Waterlow is an Emmy Award-winning producer who has been working in documentaries for over 15 years. Most recently, she produced OJ: Made in America, an ESPN Films documentary directed by Ezra Edelman. The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in May 2016. It received several awards for Best Documentary Feature, from organizations such as the Gotham Awards, the International Documentary Association, the National Board of Review and an award for Achievement in Production from the Cinema Eye Honors. Additionally, the documentary was awarded a Dupont Journalism Award and a special award from the American Film Institute. Waterlow was the senior producer of content for MAKERS.com, the Co-Producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Cutie and the Boxer, the Line Producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, and has worked on a number of HBO films including The Weight of the Nation, WARTORN: 1861-2010, Teddy: In His Own Words. In 2007, Waterlow won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Documentary for her work as part of the HBO team that produced Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush. In addition to ESPN and HBO, she has produced and contributed to historical documentaries, docu-dramas & public affairs programming for a variety of networks including PBS, History Channel, Discovery Channel, TLC, AMC and Hallmark.

Produced by Emily Harrold, Pallavi Sastry and Marcia Rock

Hosted by the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute

Special Thanks to Marcia Rock, Director of News and Documentary
at the NYU Arthur Carter Journalism Institute and
Chair of NYWIFT’s Documentary Committee