Jarecki’s ‘Jinx’: A documentary for binge-watching generation

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki says “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” his story of a New Yorker with privilege who’s free despite suspicions of his involvement in three murders, may be the first documentary created for the binge watcher.

Durst’s tale begins unspooling at 7 p.m. Sunday on HBO and continues for five more weekly episodes. More than a murder mystery, the absorbing series reveals a strange but smart man who has long feuded with his wealthy family.

“The story is so operatic,” Jarecki said. “That’s what’s so fascinating to me – seeing someone who is born to such privilege and years later is living in a $300-a-month rooming house in Galveston, Texas, disguised as a mute woman.”

Durst, 71, has never been charged in connection with the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathie, or in the unsolved 2000 murder of his friend Susan Berman in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was acquitted in the 2001 dismemberment death of his Galveston neighbor, Morris Black, because he said the killing was in self-defense.

Jarecki told a Hollywood version of Durst’s story in a 2010 film that starred Ryan Gosling, “All Good Things.” A week before the film’s release, Durst called and said he wanted to see it. Apparently impressed, Durst agreed to be interviewed about his life by Jarecki and partner Marc Smerling.

Once done, Jarecki wasn’t sure what to do with the footage. He showed portions of the interview to Diane Sawyer and her late husband, Mike Nichols, who suggested it made for another movie when coupled with an investigation into Durst’s claims. Jarecki made a rough cut of a four-hour film and still had friends curious about things left out.

So he settled on the documentary series, reasoning that viewers in a binge-watching era have the ability to dive deeply into a story. Jarecki constructs it as a journey of discovery for viewers, as it was for him.

“I did come to a firm conclusion” about Durst’s guilt or innocence, he said. “When you watch the six episodes, I think you’ll get to the end and you’ll know what happened.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2015 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Jarecki’s ‘Jinx’: A documentary for binge-watching generation."