DOCUMENTARY

Four friends, a photographer, two struggling documentary filmmakers and an aspiring journalist inadvertently discover a human burial site being utilised by an active serial killer operating in the lower north island. Against better judgement they persuade themselves not to inform the authorities but to gather their collective resources to begin a private investigation, covertly surveilling this man in an effort to produce a knowingly illegal yet revolutionarily bold documentary film of his crimes.. as they occur.

A “Kyle J. Johnston” FILM
WRITTEN BY Kyle J. Johnston

When landscape photographer Kasey Williams sits down to import an ordinary days images from her camera to her computer she comes across something unexpected. In the bottom of an image there appears to be what looks like a half buried decomposing body, beneath an interesting looking tree she had been shooting. She quickly realises that she has unwillingly photographed evidence of a crime that she has no business or desire to be aware of. A very quiet, non-confrontational person by nature, the very knowledge she now has hits her with a tidal wave of anxiety. Rushing to delete the image, she attempts to keep silent about it.

Not long after this however, her best friend Anna, an aspiring journalist, who couldn't help noticing Kasey's abnormal behaviour, manages to coax it out of her. Arousing curiosity and intriguing her investigative side, Anna immediately informs Kasey's boyfriend Dean and his filmmaking partner Sid who get to work on recovering the deleted image. Dean, a struggling documentary filmmaker who has been in a depressingly long pursuit for compelling subject matter can't help but see the potential of this find and with the help of Anna and Sid heavily convinces Kasey to take them to the site.

Upon a late night arrival at the site, marked by the tree from the photograph, they discover not one corpse but at least a dozen, dumped and poorly buried in a pit surrounded by tree roots. It immediately becomes clear that this is a much larger story. With camera and flashlight on hand Dean climbs down into the pit and begins examining the bodies for more information, discovering that most of the victims had suffered horrendous injuries clearly inflicted with intent to kill. This is the work of a serial Killer. Dean, who should be horrified, is captivated, he sees this as his one chance to finally earn global recognition as a filmmaker and in that moment makes the decision to track down and surveil the person responsible, not for legal justice, but for his own selfish desires to exploit the killer for an illegal documentary film project.

With no initial idea of the killers identity they embark into secret and self funded private investigation which leads them into situations they could never have imagined, faced with the immense fear and paranoia of stalking a murderer and the moral conflicts that emerge, the film explores the psychological implications of placing potential profit value ahead of value for human life as the characters ride the ever thinning line between witnesses and accessories.