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On the day of our call, a cover story quoting the Halbachs stated they believed the filmmakers had produced a one-sided documentary. Ricciardi and Demos had not read the feature but, after asking to hear some of the quotes, were quick to point out that they had reached out to the family.

According to Ricciardi, “universal access” was something the pair sought out from the very beginning. “We reached out to the Halbach family. I ultimately sat down with Mike Halbach for coffee and what he told us then was that there was nothing to be learned from Steven Avery. And there was nothing wrong with the American criminal justice system. The Halbach family declined to participate in a documentary that we described to them as an exploration of the reliability of the American criminal justice system and the extent to which it had evolved since 1985. Obviously we understand that this entire experience: The loss of Teresa, the investigation, the prosecution, all that must be incredibly painful for the family, and we understand that. But to say that this is a one-sided documentary? We took no sides here.”

Ricciardi firmly believes Making A Murderer to be an unbiased account of what transpired in the Avery case. “We included as many points of view as were available to us, including Mike Halbach. Including Ken Kratz’s and the state’s. These were people that decided for themselves not to sit down with us and give a sit down interview but we used our original and acquired footage to tell their point of view as accurately and fairly as we could. We think multiple points of view are represented in the series.”

In other words, it comes down to a larger debate about documentaries and journalism; bias and intent. One that, this week, continues to rage as critics argue the merits of Sean Penn’s El Chapo feature in Rolling Stone. Asked specifically if they consider Making A Murder to be journalism, Ricciardi takes the lead, speaking for the pair. “We’re not trying to make a statement,”she says. “We’re trying to explore questions. If that fits your definition of journalism … we are documenting events and trying to share that with the public.”