Erin Lee Carr | |
|---|---|
 Erin Lee Carr atSXSW | |
| Born | (1988-04-15)April 15, 1988 (age 36) |
| Education | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Occupation(s) | Documentary filmmaker Writer |
| Years active | 2010–present |
| Parent(s) | David Carr |
| Website | erinleecarr |
Erin Lee Carr (born April 15, 1988)[1] is an Americandocumentary film director and producer. She is also an author for publications includingVICE and her memoir calledAll That You Leave Behind: A Memoir, a story about love, addiction, and the relationship between father and daughter.[2] In 2015,Variety included Carr as one of its "10 Documakers To Watch".[3] Carr made the 2018Forbes 30 under 30 list.[4]
Her documentaries includeThought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop,Mommy Dead and Dearest and theHBO documentariesI Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter andAt the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal.[5] Carr also directed and produced the high-profileNetflix documentaryBritney vs Spears, chroniclingBritney Spears's attempts to challenge her abusive13-year conservatorship by her fatherJamie Spears; the film made a number of accusations against Spears's business managerLou Taylor.[6][7]
Carr is the daughter of the lateThe New York Times media columnistDavid Carr.[8][9]
Carr was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota to journalistDavid Carr and Anna Lee.[1][10]
Carr and her twin sister, Meagan Carr, were born two and a half months early. David Carr and Anna O'Leary lost custody of the twins because of their drug addiction. Carr and her sister went into foster care for a summer. When her father got out of rehab, he regained physical custody of the girls and in 1994 married Jill Rooney, who became Erin's step-mother.[1][11]
In addition to her twin sister Meagan, a mental health worker,[9] Carr has a half-sister named Maddie.[1][8] The family lived inMinneapolis, Minnesota, and thenNew Jersey.[12]
In 2010, Carr graduated from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts.[13] In the Spring of 2010, Carr attendedFAMU inPrague in theCzech Republic.[14]
In the Summer of 2009, Carr was an intern atFox Searchlight Pictures, working in the public relations department.[15] In the Fall of 2009, Carr worked as a Media Assistant at the Instructional Media Center in the Communication Arts Department at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.[14] In November 2010, she worked as an office production assistant onLena Dunham's TV show,Girls.[2][14]
Carr worked as a college intern atVICE. After graduation, in 2010 she got a full-time job atVICE where she worked up to an Associate Producer position forVice Media'sMotherboard,[16] an online magazine and video channel that focused on the intersection of technology, science and people. She was atVICE for three years.[17]
In 2011, Carr co-produced the documentaryFree The Network for Motherboard.[18] The film depicted the efforts of theFree Network Foundation to provideOccupy Wall Street protestors inZuccotti Park with Internet connectivity. TheNYPD's treatment of the infrastructure and protesters was highlighted in a story calledWho Smashed the Laptops from Occupy Wall Street? Inside the NYPD's Lost and Found.[19][20]
In 2012, Carr developedSpaced Out forMotherboard.[21]Spaced Out had twelve videos, nine of which Carr helped create. She helped produceUFO sightings in Colorado,Using the Sun to Make Music,The Man Who Hunts Spy Satellites,[22]Save the Last Great Telescope, andThe First Animal to Survive in Space.[23] Carr was an assistant producer forBuilding a Homemade Space Craft,Blowing up Asteroids with NASA and Neil deGrasse Tyson,New York's Strangest Astronaut, andHomemade Mission to Mars by Tom Sachs.[21]
In 2013, Carr developedMy Life Online forVICE'sMotherboard.[24] Carr produced three videos for this series:Shoenice22 Will Eat Anything for Fame,The Story of Karl Welzein, According to @dadboner Creator Mike Burns,[25] andJerome LOL on Remixing the Internet and the Ageless Beauty of Web 1.0.[26]
In 2013, Carr produced a documentary forVICE calledClick. Print. Gun. aboutCody Wilson, the owner ofDefense Distributed.[27] The film shows how 3D-printing is creating new issues with gun production. Wilson is against gun control and is working to create a full blueprint for a completely 3D printed gun with hopes to put it online for anyone to have access.[27] The documentary won a 2014Webby Award.[28]
In June 2013, she leftVICE forVox Media'sThe Verge.[17] She worked as a producer, a position she held for four months.[15][19] While at Vox, Carr curated and produced long and short stories forThe Verge.[17]
In November 2013, Carr became a freelance director forHBO Documentary Films.[5][19]
In April 2015, Carr's first documentary for HBO,Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop premiered at the 2015Tribeca Film Festival.[29][30] Released byHBO in May 2015,Thought Crimes is a documentary film aboutGilberto Valle, an ex-New York City Police Officer who was arrested on two counts; one for kidnapping conspiracy and illegally gaining access to a law-enforcement database.[29]Thought Crimes received positive reviews[31][32] and was a finalist for the 2016Cinema Eye Honors in the non-fiction film for television category.[33]
In May 2017, HBO released Carr's documentary filmMommy Dead and Dearest, which was about the murder ofDee Dee Blanchard, allegedly by her daughterGypsy Rose Blanchard.[34][35] It was an official selection forSXSW,[36]Hot Docs andDocAviv and was one of the most-watched documentaries on HBO in 2017.[12]
In 2019, Carr's two-part HBO documentaryI Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter premiered atSXSW.[37] The film chroniclesthe Michelle Carter criminal case.[38][39] It was also an official selection atHot Docs[40] and theMontclair Film Festival.[41] It was released on HBO in the Summer of 2019.[42]
In 2019, Carr's filmAt the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, premiered at the 2019Tribeca Film Festival,[43] and then aired on HBO.[44] The film follows theUSA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, with a focus on the survivor's takes surrounding the predatory attitudes of former USA Gymnastics doctorLarry Nassar.[45]
In 2023, Carr directed and producedThe Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring focusing on Rachel Lee, the alleged mastermind behindThe Bling Ring speaking out for the first time.[46][47]
In 2024, Carr directed and producedI Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders focusing on murderer Lois Riess, who gives her first interview to Carr.[48]
In 2018, Carr directed an episode of theNetflix documentary seriesDirty Money called "Drug Short" which examines how big pharmaceutical companies exploit patients seeking life saving drugs.[49]
Carr directed the limited series,How to Fix a Drug Scandal, that was released onNetflix on April 1, 2020.[50]How to Fix a Drug Scandal is a four-part documentary series that depicts the arrest and prosecution of Sonja Farak andAnnie Dookhan, two former state drug lab technicians. Dookhan was accused of forging reports and tampering with samples to produce desired results.[51][52][53]How to Fix a Drug Scandal depicts the role of formerAttorney General ofMassachusettsMartha Coakley, who was accused of political cover up and of minimizing the length of time Farak was battling drug addictions to cocaine, meth, and other substances: from almost 10 years to only one and a half years.[54]
After the February 2021 release and public reaction toFraming Britney Spears, aNew York Times presentation onFX,Bloomberg announced that Carr was working on an additional documentary to be streamed onNetflix about the Spears, namely her fatherJamie Spears' and her former business managerLou M. Taylor's control of the star's finances and career under a 13-year conservatorship.[6][7]
Carr, along withLena Dunham, was the executive producer ofOrgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste, released on Netflix in November 2022.[55] The film came out to mixed reviews and controversy, including hundreds of women and men claiming that that film used their image against their consent, filing a lawsuit against Netflix to disallow the film, signing petitions, and creating viral videos protesting the violation.[56][57][58]
In 2024, Carr served as an executive producer onPerfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini[59] In the first week of the series release, 3.6 million viewers tuned into the series, making it Hulu's most viewed documentary.[60] That same year, Carr directed and producedFanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara following the bandTegan and Sara, as they investigate acatfishing scheme affecting their fans.[61]
Additionally, Carr is in development on a scripted series focusing on theMurdaugh family.[62]
Carr lives inNew York City.[12] Carr has discussed her struggles with alcohol and becoming sober.[9]
In April 2019, Carr published a memoir calledAll That You Leave Behind: A Memoir forRandom House.[63]All That You Leave Behind started out as a self-publishedMedium article calledStill Rendering that Carr wrote a year after her father's death.[2] The book describes Carr's growth in her career as a documentary filmmaker and is a celebration of her father,David Carr, that includes emails andGChat and other records that documented her relationship with him.[15][64]
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Spaced Out[21][22] | Yes | Documentary series; 9 episodes | |
| 2012 | Free the Network: Hackers Take Back the Web[65] | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2012 | First Animal to Survive in Space[23] | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2012 | The World's Hottest Taxidermist[66] | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2013 | My Life Online[25][26] | Yes | Documentary series; 3 episodes | |
| 2013 | Click. Print. Gun.[27] | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2013 | Picnic Table | Yes | Short | |
| 2015 | Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2015 | Remembering David Carr | Documentary; Self, special thanks | ||
| 2017 | Mommy Dead and Dearest | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2017 | Whirlybird | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2018 | Dirty Money: Drug Short | Yes | Yes | Documentary; episode: "Drug Short" |
| 2019 | I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth V. Michelle Carter[42] | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2019 | At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal[44] | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2020 | How to Fix a Drug Scandal[67] | Yes | Documentary series; 4 episodes | |
| 2021 | Britney vs Spears[7] | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2022 | Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2023 | The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2024 | Stormy[68] | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2024 | Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2024 | Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
| 2024 | I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders | Yes | Yes | Documentary |
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