The true story of an infamous gangster is revealed in director Joe Berlinger’s new film WHITEY: United States of America v. James J. Bulger. The film tells the story of how Bulger — Number 2 on America’s Most Wanted list after Osama Bin Laden — was accused of murdering over a dozen known victims and terrorized Boston for years without ever being charged with so much as a misdemeanor by the FBI and local law enforcement. The film also uses the legal proceedings of Bulger’s trial as a springboard to explore allegations of corruption within the highest levels of law enforcement.
WHITEY: United States of America v. James J. Bulger won the Silver Telly for best Documentary at the 2014 Telly Awards, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Miami Film Festival Knight Documentary Competition.
Following the DGA Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s Documentary Series screening in New York on September 5, Berlinger discussed the making of the film in a conversation moderated by Documentary Series Committee Chair Chuck Workman (Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles). Berlinger also engaged in a Q&A moderated by Director Robert B. Weide (Woody Allen: A Documentary) following the Los Angeles screening on November 12.
In addition to Whitey, Berlinger’s work includes the feature film Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2; the feature-length documentaries Brother's Keeper, Under African Skies, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and Raising Hell: The Visions of Clive Barker; episodes of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street, America Undercover and The System with Joe Berlinger; the documentaries for television Judgment Day: Should the Guilty Go Free and Black Tide: Voices from the Gulf; and the shorts Outrageous Taxi Stories, The Power of Dreams - Dream the Impossible and Metallica: This Monster Lives.
Berlinger and co-director Bruce Sinofsky were also nominated for the Academy Award and the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory in 2011, and the DGA Award for Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills in 1996. They took home the DGA Award for Brother's Keeper in 1992. Berlinger also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series for Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America in 2006, and another Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming for Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills in 1996.
Berlinger has been a member of the DGA since 1997.