Roger Ebert once described the movies as a machine that generates empathy and if that’s the case, documentaries are the most efficient kind. We leave our insulated little bubble and become intimately familiar with people we’d otherwise never encounter, usually concluding with a much greater understanding of them: their joy, their sorrow, or oftentimes their intense anger.

Netflix’s Making a Murderer has become an instant phenomenon and that’s not just because the facts of the case are so outrageous on the surface; it’s because this is a truly compelling piece of filmmaking made by two masters who understand how to develop real life characters using skillful editing.

Read the full story at The Celebrity Cafe.