'The risk of allowing someone else to fictionalize your story is that you can’t reclaim that narrative even if it’s so clear that the fiction is false.'
Campos did not respond to a request for comment for this story, and HBO Max declined to comment., published this week, Peterson took issue with the way HBO Max’s “The Staircase” depicted him and his family, accusing the series of “egregious fabrications and distortions of the truth.” While de Lestrade maintains that he was paid just €7,500 for the materials he sold to Campos, Peterson asserts that the director should have been wary of the deal and concerned for the Peterson family.
“Part of the popularity of documentaries is that it’s the truth,” she continues. “So, anything that calls into question that it’s true, or as true as you can make it because there is no absolute truth, is a problem.” Complicating matters: Updates to the original docuseries aired over a 14-year period, some of which Brunet edited while sheinvolved with Peterson. She edited three of those final episodes while she was involved with Peterson, and completed the final two after they had broken up.
While documentary filmmakers have never been a part of the fourth estate, many documentarians, like Porter and Pollard, set out to expose a truth using journalistic tactics. “The first letter she wrote came after she left the project,” says de Lestrade. “She didn’t want to put me in the situation where I would ask her to leave the project because she was writing to him.”
But Brunet is adamant that her romantic relationship with Peterson did not influence her work as an editor on the latter half of the project, and that she would have bowed out if it had. Despite the reservations others might have about her continued involvement, de Lestrade says “if I could do it again, I will do it again.” He tells: “When I look back at the last five episodes of the series, I feel very comfortable the way we cut the pieces. There is no bias there. And again, an editor is never alone in the editor room. At the end of day, the director will decide what to cut and the way to cut it.