AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER Special Screenings

“This is the most personal and most disturbing film I have made. I knew Aileen over the course of twelve years, and the barbaric nature of her death had a profound effect on me … It was one film I didn’t choose to make; I came to it as a witness and ended up attending an execution. The violence of taking a life remains the same whether it is legally sanctioned or not. It introduces murder into our vocabulary of behaviour.” – Nick Broomfield

Broomfield introduced “the world’s first woman serial killer” in his 1992 film AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER. Aileen’s lawyer, her born-again mother and the police were trying to sell her story to the highest bidder. Here he is reunited with Aileen at her final appeal before execution. Governor Jeb Bush, branding Aileen as “evil” and stating, “We want to be more like Texas,” proceeds with Wuornos’s execution in spite of her obviously ravaged mental health.

This compassionate follow-up film is an emotionally charged and unflinchingly profound examination of the death penalty and the lack of help for the mentally ill.