TV documentaries are having a real-life impact, from Framing Britney Spears to Surviving R. Kelly to Who Killed Malcolm X?

The Washington Post

Phil Bertelsen, along with Rachel Dretzin, co-directed Who Killed Malcolm X?, the Netflix docuseries that helped exonerate convicted Malcolm X assassins Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam. Bertelsen has a trifurcated theory for how unscripted projects such as his, Framing Britney Spears, Surviving R. Kelly and even HBO's The Jinx came to exert so much influence. First: “From a business standpoint, we all understand that documentary and unscripted content is popular now because it’s affordable," he tells The Washington Post. "Networks who are desperate for content can get a lot of it for less,” he says. Second, as a natural result of a bigger, more varied pool of documentary projects viewers can watch and usually stream any time at home, “more people are going to love and appreciate the genre.” Third “is just technology itself and the kind of pervasive use of social media,” he says. “People can really congregate around something.” The trend also includes Leaving Neverland and Allen v. Farrow, which led to re-examinations of beloved cultural icons Michael Jackson and Woody Allen.