Triple-Emmy® winner filmmaker John Kastner (MONSTER IN THE FAMILY) returns with yet another compelling look at family coping with a killing in the riveting documentary LIFE WITH MURDER. A stunning portrait of an Ontario couple’s painful struggle to accept their son back into the family after he is convicted of murdering his sister, the Original CTV Documentary premieres Tuesday, August 31 at 10 p.m. ET on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times). An expanded festival version screened earlier this year to rave reviews at Toronto’s Hot Docs and the Los Angeles Film Festival, and will premiere Saturday, Sept. 11 from 7-9 p.m. ET on CTV. Meanwhile, the original one-hour television documentary has also been picked by up by the A&E network for telecast in the U.S. and worldwide later this year.
In January of 1998, the murder of 18-year-old Jennifer Jenkins shocks the small community of Chatham, Ontario. Shot five times, Jennifer’s lifeless body is discovered by her parents, Brian and Leslie, in the basement of their home. Jennifer’s brother, 20-year-old Mason, is nowhere to be found. As the Jenkins struggle with their grief, police quickly zero in on the most likely suspect: Mason. He is soon arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of the first-degree murder of his sister. But Mason adamantly claims he is innocent, and his parents are faced with an agonizing dilemma.
Trapped in the nightmare scenario of trying to cope with the murder of their daughter by their own son, the Jenkins must make perhaps the most heartbreaking decision a parent could face: whether to stand by Mason and welcome the alleged killer back into their lives or break with him completely, thereby destroying what’s left of the family.
To the surprise of many, Brian and Leslie decide to support their son. Even as horrifying secrets come to light and the strain mounts on their own relationship, the parents remain determined not to abandon their only living child. Then, in an astonishing twist, the film reveals who really killed Jennifer Jenkins: the killer confesses on camera.
“The confession to murder came completely out of the blue and utterly transformed the film,” said John Kastner.
“For the first time, all the principals in this unhappy tale, from the parents and the police to the rest of the family, found out what really happened that night. It’s astonishing to have filled in the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that was such a crucial event in their life.”
LIFE WITH MURDER combines gripping police interrogation videotape, poignant home videos, revealing interviews and astonishing access to the Jenkins family to tell a remarkable story that unfolds over the course of a decade.
John Kastner has won three Emmy® Awards – more than any other individual in the history of Canadian television – for his television documentaries FOUR WOMEN, FIGHTING BACK and THE LIFER AND THE LADY. Kastner produced the award-winning MONSTER IN THE FAMILY for CTV, about the disturbing relationship between a notorious criminal, Martin Ferrier, and his mother. A recipient of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Achievement Award in 2007, his other films include HUNTING FOR BOBBY OATWAY, PRISON MOTHER/PRISON DAUGHTER and ROMANCE WITH A RAPIST, among others.
LIFE WITH MURDER is a CTV Original Documentary. The documentary is produced by JS Kastner Productions in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada in association with CTV.
LIFE WITH MURDER is the latest in CTV’s repertoire of award-winning original documentary programming. Upcoming titles include THE PIG FARM and IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY.
