Australian filmmaker Kitty Green says that more than two decades after the unsolved murder of JonBenét Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, the case remains so fascinating to people in part because of the similarities with David Lynch's surreal 1990s television drama Twin Peaks.
"It's around Christmas, Santa Claus is a suspect, the victim is a beauty queen who is just 6 years old, and her mother was also in pageants – it's like David Lynch wrote it," says Green. Her documentary, Casting JonBenet, explores the effects of the child's death on the community. It will be released on Netflix on Friday.
"It's such a strange set of circumstances," Kelly says of the Ramsey case. "That, for me, is why it's so interesting. That was kind of the hook. It easily lent itself to these cinematic sequences that are in the film because basically it's like ripping scenes out of Twin Peaks."
In Twin Peaks, which returns to TV next month after a break of 26 years, the drama is sparked by the murder of an 18-year old cheerleader and prom queen in a town populated by eccentric characters.
The lure of that show was that the murder-mystery opened a door for audiences to get to know those characters and gain an insight into a community that only seems normal on the surface.
Green’s extraordinary documentary – which holds a 100 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned acclaim during its run of festival screenings – delves into the lives of those in the community affected by Ramsey’s death.
Rather than using the traditional documentary style of interviewing people, an approach adopted by many previous investigations into what remains an unsolved crime, Green chose an unusual alternative.
She called upon members of the community in Boulder to audition for a proposed film about the murder. Some have had close family members murdered, one brings whips to the auditions, and they all have theories to share about what happened.
"There were a lot of influences that made me decide to make a film in this unique way," says Green. "I made a short film [The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul, 2015] which was about a figure skater. I had little girls dress up.
"And then there was this Louis C K joke that stuck with me, that somewhere there must be all these audition tapes of little girls auditioning to be the young girl in Schindler's List.
“But ultimately the film was about getting different perspectives on something that is well known.”
The facts are as follows. At 6am on December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called the Boulder police department saying her daughter was missing from the family home and that she had found a two-and-a-half page ransom note. The police arrived and later that day the girl’s body was found by her father, John, in the basement of the house. She had been dead for some time – hit on the head and strangled.
The police botched the investigation by initially allowing neighbours to walk around the house, and failing to search it.
The case is used by the Boulder police force as an example of how not to investigate a crime.
There are several theories: JonBenét was accidentally killed by one or both of her parents; her 9-year-old brother killed her and the parents covered it up; or it was a botched kidnapping.
Yet – and this is what makes Green’s film all the more remarkable – she does not set out to solve the mystery.
“I don’t have a theory,” she says. “The film is not about that – it’s more about the community reflecting on the crime, and so there is no real point speculating. It is an unsolved crime.”
As a result, the crime fades into the background, and it is the revelations about the local community that fascinate – in a similar way to how in Twin Peaks, the murder of Laura Palmer was a device to explore a small town and the secrets of its inhabitants.
Casting JonBenet is about memory and trying to come to terms with a collective trauma.
“They are a bunch of people trying to make sense of something that they’ll never be able to make sense of,” says Green, “so they are bringing their own personal experience and creating their own narratives and their own stories to deal with it.”
“Everyone has their own way of dealing with it.”
• Casting JonBenet will be available on Netflix from Friday
artslife@thenational.ae
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
Profile
Company name: Marefa Digital
Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Number of employees: seven
Sector: e-learning
Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019
Investors: Friends and family
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
