The continuing fascination with the murder of six-year-old Boulder beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey gets a fresh look this week with the April 28 Netflix premiere of the documentary
The film, shot entirely in Boulder and directed by Australian filmmaker Kitty Green, turns the camera on the public and the media’s obsession with the still-unsolved 1996 case by compiling 15 months of interviews, auditions, re-enactments and other speculative material gathered in the famously liberal city to Denver’s north.
The hybrid documentary/drama made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and garnered national attention for its unusual approach to its subject matter. It was incentivized by the Colorado Film Office through its 20 percent rebate program and received $50,000, as well as funding from the Sundance Institute. Netflix purchased the worldwide streaming rights before it premiered at the festival.
“In ‘Casting JonBenét,’ we see the role that subjectivity plays in our interpretation of public events,” Caroline Libresco, a senior programmer at Sundance, .
New reviews for the film, which was produced by Colorado-based Mitch Dickman and Listen Productions, have been rolling in fast this week and adding to its already considerable acclaim, with some calling it “a bizarre spectacle” (), “bewitching” (), “strangely moving” () and “an ingenious, instant classic” (Australia ).
The film currently has a 100 percent “fresh” score from review-aggregation website and an 88 (out of 100) rating on .
