TV Fanatic had the opportunity to chat with Patricia E Gillespie, the director behind the compelling documentary They Called Him Mostly Harmless, which is currently airing on Max.
Our conversation delves deep into the motivations and stories that drive Gillespie's work.
It offers a compelling glimpse into the motivations and insights of a filmmaker deeply engaged with the complexities of human resilience, the transformative power of technology, and the enduring mystery of identity in the digital age.
First of all, I want to mention how much I appreciated The Fire That Took Her and your work on that.
Thank you.
That was just one of the most harrowing accounts I've ever seen, and I still think about it two years later.
Thank you so much. Judy was a super special person. She made my job easy by being as amazing as she was.
It's quite the pivot detailing her...
Our conversation delves deep into the motivations and stories that drive Gillespie's work.
It offers a compelling glimpse into the motivations and insights of a filmmaker deeply engaged with the complexities of human resilience, the transformative power of technology, and the enduring mystery of identity in the digital age.
First of all, I want to mention how much I appreciated The Fire That Took Her and your work on that.
Thank you.
That was just one of the most harrowing accounts I've ever seen, and I still think about it two years later.
Thank you so much. Judy was a super special person. She made my job easy by being as amazing as she was.
It's quite the pivot detailing her...
- 2/21/2024
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
A new HBO Max documentary directed by Patricia E. Gillespie, They Called Him Mostly Harmless, showcases a puzzling case involving a hiker’s deceased body being found in Big Cypress National Preserve in 2018. After the investigation started and no one could identify the body, some web sleuths decided to start their own independent investigations, which finally led to the discovery of this man’s identity. The documentary not only focused on this case and the subsequent investigations but also pointed out how independent investigations led by these web sleuths brought complications to the case and led to several arguments among them. The documentary simultaneously showed the positive as well as the negative side of these cybersleuths while also focusing on the details of the investigation. Let’s talk about this puzzling mystery and see how the internet uncovered the identity of the man.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Was The “Most Harmful?...
Spoilers Ahead
Who Was The “Most Harmful?...
- 2/9/2024
- by Poulami Nanda
- Film Fugitives
List of What to Watch on HBO and Max in February 2024. (Picture Credit: IMDb)
If you are wondering what to watch on HBO and Max in February 2024, you have come to the right place. The TV network and the streaming platform have a captivating lineup of new titles.
Viewers will be treated with some exclusive releases, mainly some compelling series. Both platforms are known to provide quality entertainment to their viewers. So, there’s no doubt that they have planned some promising content even for February.
Compared to 2023, the number of releases on HBO and Max has evidently gone down. But quantity only matters a little if the quality is excellent. So take a pen and paper and save these exciting titles making their way on the streaming platform this month.
Trending Is Thanos Finally Returning To The MCU? Josh Brolin Reacts, “I Hear Kind Of Like Through The Grapevine…...
If you are wondering what to watch on HBO and Max in February 2024, you have come to the right place. The TV network and the streaming platform have a captivating lineup of new titles.
Viewers will be treated with some exclusive releases, mainly some compelling series. Both platforms are known to provide quality entertainment to their viewers. So, there’s no doubt that they have planned some promising content even for February.
Compared to 2023, the number of releases on HBO and Max has evidently gone down. But quantity only matters a little if the quality is excellent. So take a pen and paper and save these exciting titles making their way on the streaming platform this month.
Trending Is Thanos Finally Returning To The MCU? Josh Brolin Reacts, “I Hear Kind Of Like Through The Grapevine…...
- 2/4/2024
- by Pooja Darade
- KoiMoi
"He was definitely trying to stay anonymous." Max has revealed an official trailer for a true crime, mystery thriller documentary film titled They Called Him Mostly Harmless, available for streaming next month on Max after premiering at last year's Hampton Film Festival. Based on the Wired article about the "mostly harmless" hiker found dead in a tent in Florida in 2018, surrounded by food and cash, but no ID. Who was he? What really happened to him? True crime veteran Patricia E. Gillespie's new doc is a character-centric reimagining of the classic mystery. She explains: "I was drawn to this story because of its potential to help us think more deeply about what it means to live in the digital age. I hope we've made a film that manages to both honor the citizen detectives who worked tirelessly to identify the 'Mostly Harmless', while encouraging audiences to get involved in the issue of unidentified persons.
- 1/29/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The trailer for Max’s They Called Him Mostly Harmless teases the disturbing true story of the hunt for a deceased hiker’s identity. Premiering on the streaming service on February 8, 2024, the bizarre tale was directed by Emmy winner Patricia E. Gillespie (The Fire That Took Her) and features individuals directly involved in figuring out the mystery man’s identity.
“I was drawn to this story because of its potential to help us think more deeply about what it means to live in the digital age,” explained director Gillespie. “I hope we’ve made a film that manages to both honor the citizen detectives who worked tirelessly to identify Mostly Harmless, while encouraging audiences to get involved in the issue of unidentified persons.”
Max offers this description of the documentary:
“When an unidentified hiker is found deceased in the Florida wilderness, authorities release a sketch. Multiple hikers call in claiming to have met the man.
“I was drawn to this story because of its potential to help us think more deeply about what it means to live in the digital age,” explained director Gillespie. “I hope we’ve made a film that manages to both honor the citizen detectives who worked tirelessly to identify Mostly Harmless, while encouraging audiences to get involved in the issue of unidentified persons.”
Max offers this description of the documentary:
“When an unidentified hiker is found deceased in the Florida wilderness, authorities release a sketch. Multiple hikers call in claiming to have met the man.
- 1/25/2024
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
The 10th anniversary edition of Miami’s Gems Film Festival will get underway in November, promising a four-day line-up of 26 films that feature diversity and highlight more than famous faces from the awards season circuit.
The festival, a fall offshoot of the Miami Film Festival hosted by Miami Dade College, will run from Nov. 2-5 this year. Along with screenings, such as opening film “Radical” and closer “The Holdovers,” events and ceremonies will recognize the work of cinematographers, directors, actors and producers.
“Gems is much more compact and curated. It’s about highlighting these award contenders of the fall movie season,” says Lauren Cohen, director of programming at the Miami Film Festival.
In its commitment to showcasing diverse voices and perspectives, festival organizers curate projects spanning a multitude of genres, languages, and cultures, from thought-provoking documentaries to heartwarming dramas. “We’re looking at doing more honors and more special events...
The festival, a fall offshoot of the Miami Film Festival hosted by Miami Dade College, will run from Nov. 2-5 this year. Along with screenings, such as opening film “Radical” and closer “The Holdovers,” events and ceremonies will recognize the work of cinematographers, directors, actors and producers.
“Gems is much more compact and curated. It’s about highlighting these award contenders of the fall movie season,” says Lauren Cohen, director of programming at the Miami Film Festival.
In its commitment to showcasing diverse voices and perspectives, festival organizers curate projects spanning a multitude of genres, languages, and cultures, from thought-provoking documentaries to heartwarming dramas. “We’re looking at doing more honors and more special events...
- 10/31/2023
- by Cata Balzano
- Variety Film + TV
It’s one thing for a person to go off the grid. It’s a whole other story when no one can identify a hiker’s dead body for more than two years.
Director Patricia E. Gillespie explores the mystery of the unidentified man in Max’s upcoming documentary “They Called Him Mostly Harmless,” which made its world premiere on Oct. 8 at the Hamptons Intl. Film Festival.
The unidentified hiker had no ID, phone, credit card, or any way to be identified when police found him deceased in a tent at Florida’s Cypress National Preserve in 2018. The hiker didn’t appear in any missing persons database, and no family members or friends came forward to claim his body. The John Doe soon became known by his trail names — “Ben Bilemy” and “Mostly Harmless.”
When police had no way to identify the hiker a group of amateur internet sleuths began...
Director Patricia E. Gillespie explores the mystery of the unidentified man in Max’s upcoming documentary “They Called Him Mostly Harmless,” which made its world premiere on Oct. 8 at the Hamptons Intl. Film Festival.
The unidentified hiker had no ID, phone, credit card, or any way to be identified when police found him deceased in a tent at Florida’s Cypress National Preserve in 2018. The hiker didn’t appear in any missing persons database, and no family members or friends came forward to claim his body. The John Doe soon became known by his trail names — “Ben Bilemy” and “Mostly Harmless.”
When police had no way to identify the hiker a group of amateur internet sleuths began...
- 10/10/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Here is a wrap-up of all the news you need to know from Monday, May 8, 2023.
As the fate of the bulk of The CW's scripted series remains Tba, the network has picked up another Canadian import.
Son of a Critch is set to air on the network this summer.
The series is a coming-of-age story based on the childhood and adolescence of Canadian comedian Mark Critch.
At the beginning of the series, 11-year-old Mark is growing up in 1980s Newfoundland, where he navigates starting junior high school, making friends, and connecting with the small collection of people in his limited world.
“When I was a young kid watching American TV in the ‘80s, I never dreamed that one day my own story would be beamed back over the border,” said Mark Critch.
“Having enjoyed so many CW shows with my own family, I’m excited to invite our American friends over to ‘my house.
As the fate of the bulk of The CW's scripted series remains Tba, the network has picked up another Canadian import.
Son of a Critch is set to air on the network this summer.
The series is a coming-of-age story based on the childhood and adolescence of Canadian comedian Mark Critch.
At the beginning of the series, 11-year-old Mark is growing up in 1980s Newfoundland, where he navigates starting junior high school, making friends, and connecting with the small collection of people in his limited world.
“When I was a young kid watching American TV in the ‘80s, I never dreamed that one day my own story would be beamed back over the border,” said Mark Critch.
“Having enjoyed so many CW shows with my own family, I’m excited to invite our American friends over to ‘my house.
- 5/8/2023
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
The Banshees of Inisherin, which won writer-director Martin McDonagh Best Screenplay and Colin Farrell the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice last month, hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, expanding to 10 more markets/50 locations next weekend, and to 600-800 screens November 4.
If standing ovations say anything, the comedy-drama had a rapturous 13 minutes of applause on the Lido. It’s certified fresh at 99 on Rotten Tomatoes. (Here’s the Deadline review.) Critical acclaim plus a nascent arthouse revival underway bode well for the Searchlight Pictures film, the distributor’s second big-screen outing after a 10-month hiatus. Its first was See How They Run last month. Next up, Mark Mylod’s Adam McKay-produced horror-comedy The Menu in November, and Sam Mendes drama-romance Empire of Light drops December 9.
Banshees opens at The Grove and Century City in LA and the Angelika and AMC Lincoln Square in NY...
If standing ovations say anything, the comedy-drama had a rapturous 13 minutes of applause on the Lido. It’s certified fresh at 99 on Rotten Tomatoes. (Here’s the Deadline review.) Critical acclaim plus a nascent arthouse revival underway bode well for the Searchlight Pictures film, the distributor’s second big-screen outing after a 10-month hiatus. Its first was See How They Run last month. Next up, Mark Mylod’s Adam McKay-produced horror-comedy The Menu in November, and Sam Mendes drama-romance Empire of Light drops December 9.
Banshees opens at The Grove and Century City in LA and the Angelika and AMC Lincoln Square in NY...
- 10/21/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The Fire That Took Her Review: Judy Malinowski Murder Case is Revisited in Heroic, Heartbreaking Doc
There are many reasons director Patricia E. Gillespie wanted to tell Judy Malinowski’s story. The most crucial was a desire to ensure she wasn’t forgotten. That’s a risk in domestic-violence cases, regardless of severity: statistics state 1 in 3 American women experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime. It’s so common that no one will be surprised to discover Judy’s murderer not only had multiple priors for that specific charge (amongst others), but that she had also called and told police she feared he’d kill her almost as many. It’s so common that hearing the specific details of this case while being pitched the film for review made me wonder if it was about the incident that occurred five blocks from my house in 2018.
But Judy isn’t from my neighborhood or my state. Her story takes place in Ohio, and the tragic act of...
But Judy isn’t from my neighborhood or my state. Her story takes place in Ohio, and the tragic act of...
- 10/18/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Two MTV Documentary films vying for Academy Awards attention — Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” and Tanaz Eshaghian’s short “As Far as They Can Run” — garnered the top nonfiction honors at the 23rd annual Woodstock Film Festival.
“Last Flight Home,” about Timoner and her family’s last days with her father, won the best documentary prize, while “As Far as They Can Run,” about disabled children in rural Pakistan who have been deemed “useless” by their communities, took home the fest’s best short documentary award.
“Last Flight Home” premiered at Sundance earlier this year before opening the Telluride Film Festival in September. This year marked Timoner’s first time at the Woodstock fest.
“The greatest joy I have is sharing my work in person,” Timoner told Variety. “The reason I make films is to impact people and this film is doing that more than any other film I’ve made.
“Last Flight Home,” about Timoner and her family’s last days with her father, won the best documentary prize, while “As Far as They Can Run,” about disabled children in rural Pakistan who have been deemed “useless” by their communities, took home the fest’s best short documentary award.
“Last Flight Home” premiered at Sundance earlier this year before opening the Telluride Film Festival in September. This year marked Timoner’s first time at the Woodstock fest.
“The greatest joy I have is sharing my work in person,” Timoner told Variety. “The reason I make films is to impact people and this film is doing that more than any other film I’ve made.
- 10/2/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
MTV Documentary Films has boarded new projects about an all-girl Afghan robotics team, a #MeToo crime story, an imprisoned mural artist and a community of disabled children in Pakistan. The documentaries join a slate that includes Ondi Timoner’s Sundance title “Last Flight Home,” which will be screening at Telluride this week in a rare double festival act.
The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”
The slate spans four feature-length documentaries and six short films (full details below), with Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” serving as a centrepiece.
The “Dig!” director’s acclaimed film follows...
The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”
The slate spans four feature-length documentaries and six short films (full details below), with Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” serving as a centrepiece.
The “Dig!” director’s acclaimed film follows...
- 9/2/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
by Peter Belsito
Sundance Ff 2017 Wins the Special Jury Award for Editing and according to our writer Peter Belsito, “This film was the best documentary I saw in Sundance recently.”
I reviewed the film previously here but Jennifer Brea is an interesting person so I wanted to speak with her as well.
We met in her Park City condo. She is bright and energetic despite the disease she has which her film is about, her affliction with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Besides the intensely personal nature of her illness and its effects on her family life, which are depicted in the film, she also covers the international implications and political as well. By that I mean the medical profession not recognizing or treating / curing this widespread deadly disease.
Her film makes clear the international effects of this disease. I felt it broadened the film and its important message.
Jennifer Brea
‘Why go outside the Us?...
Sundance Ff 2017 Wins the Special Jury Award for Editing and according to our writer Peter Belsito, “This film was the best documentary I saw in Sundance recently.”
I reviewed the film previously here but Jennifer Brea is an interesting person so I wanted to speak with her as well.
We met in her Park City condo. She is bright and energetic despite the disease she has which her film is about, her affliction with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Besides the intensely personal nature of her illness and its effects on her family life, which are depicted in the film, she also covers the international implications and political as well. By that I mean the medical profession not recognizing or treating / curing this widespread deadly disease.
Her film makes clear the international effects of this disease. I felt it broadened the film and its important message.
Jennifer Brea
‘Why go outside the Us?...
- 2/5/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The premiere post-tiff destination (September 20-25th) in the film community and a major leg up for narrative and non-fiction films in development, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced a whopping 140 projects selected for the Project Forum at the upcoming Ifp Independent Film Week. Made up of several sections (Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries), we find latest updates from the likes of docu-helmers Doug Block (112 Weddings) and Lana Wilson (After Tiller), and among the narrative items we find headliners in Andrew Haigh (coming off the well received 45 Years), Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls and Madame Bovary), Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal (Stranger Things) and new faces in Sundance’s large family in Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again) and Olivia Newman (First Match). Here...
- 7/22/2015
- by admin
- IONCINEMA.com
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