- Ezra Edelmans epic documentaryO.J.
Made in Americarolls into Oscar weekend as the unexpected favorite to win the Best Documentary Feature category.
(Read my defense of the films eligibility here.)
Credit: Christopher Patey/Getty Images
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There have been reports this weekabout the possibility of O.J.
Simpsons parole from prison this summer.
Obviously, the issues come up in terms of the culture today: How would that trial play now?
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How would the media coverage be different?
Attitudes have not changed that much in terms of, say, race or domestic violence.
We talk about them differently and maybe a little more, but we havent solved these problems.
VINCE BUCCI/AFP/Getty Images
Though I cant speculate on the parole thing.
I know nothing more than hes up for it.
What do you think caused this cultural vogue in the last year around O.J.?
There was your documentary and the FX show,The People vs. O.J.
Simpson: American Crime Story.I think the 20th anniversary had something to do with it.
And it felt right to have some hindsight and look back.
That was the motivating energy for us.
The last hour or 90 minutes of your film, which follow O.J.
And were watching O.J.
negotiate through the world in this whole new way hes being received.
Especially in what he thought was his community in Brentwood.
There are interesting echoes in the end, back to the beginning of the film.Exactly.
I never really knew what O.J.
was doing at that time.
When our film came out, it was literally a week after Muhammad Ali had died.
That was an interesting reference point.
And especially what a beautiful athlete he was.
That was important from the beginning.
We had to spend time with him in those early days so you understand the power he had.
He was so beloved.
If you picture yourself watching TV in 1975, there were only a handful of channels, and O.J.
might have been on all of them.
That doesnt exist today with anyone.
And I love the camaraderie about the whole thing.
And anyway, two-screen activity is the norm now, isnt it?
A phoneanda TV screen, always!
So I figure: Nows the time.
