The Keepers

“The Keepers!" is the mystery of the murder of Sister Cathy. Sister Cathy was a well-loved, 26-year-old nun who was murdered in Baltimore. This docuseries interviews people close to Cathy, who also wonders why she was murdered in the first place.

As this is a docu-series, the camera angles are all over. Whether the interviews are close-ups, and the reenactments of the crimes are wide far shots, the first episode is filled with gut-wrenching scenes making the viewer want to watch more. Following the journalist Tom Nugent, there is a lot of casual filming of individuals walking around and casually talking about this insane story. The story started with a former student on Facebook, and a lot of shots are a vlog. The videos seem homemade and are more personal making it a classic docuseries. I would put this series in more of the montage category overall, as there is so much information that needs to be shown, not leaving time for a lot of long shots. 

The filming is very average when it comes to the interviewing, but the in-depth storytellers of the people involved, and the suspenseful reenactments are what make the docuseries interesting. If there weren't muted colors, and very real moments going over her murder, the docuseries would be boring and unwatchable. The filmmaker's choice of using muted color tones put a sinister feel over the whole episode. Taking myself out of just watching a series, the entire situation is incredibly messed up and leaves me wanting to know why this happened to her. The storytelling is important to the filmmaker's choice, but the storytelling is the reason the docuseries is done well. However, without the reenactments, it would just be people talking. The film style also seemed different from the interviewing, making the viewership more interesting. 

The close-up shots that insinuated what was happening without showing too much were quite interesting and something to take away. The still image of Sister Cathy’s care being left the next day with the key in ignition near a swampy area right away gives suspicion and question without saying anything. Setting up the scene like that is something I can take away for my project moving forward. I found the most interesting part of episode one was the community of people who loved Sister Cathy, and how the filmmaker was able to capture the pure love and worry they still have for her. With filling in a lot of information, leaving the end on a cliffhanger when Jane Doe comes forward as a witness was a great way to finish the first episode. When it comes to myself adding or changing anything in the docuseries, the first episode is great, but the whole series drags a lot. I wish there was more footage that could have been recovered from the 60s on what happened that night. If something were to occur like that today, there would be security camera footage or cop cams. Now it is one of those situations where it's a wonder what exactly happened that night because there is very little proof of anything.