Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Paramount+ has set a premiere date of Monday, December 8 for Predators, David Osit’s award-winning documentary about the problematic legacy of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator. Osit’s film scrutinizes the ethical dimensions of the program, which saw Dateline partner with the group Perverted Justice in a sting operation that caught men trying to arrange encounters with “decoys” posing online as underage girls or boys. NBC’s cameras rolled as a suspected perp showed up to a house to meet their intended victim, and after a few minutes of sexually charged chitchat between adult and decoy, host Chris Hansen popped out from another room to question the alleged predator. Great for ratings, but a scenario that raised questions about journalistic practice and active collaboration with law enforcement. Predators, which was acquired by MTV Documentary Films after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, opens theatrically in the UK on Nov. 14. “Dateline’s To Catch a Predator was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested,” Paramount+ states in a release. “Predators is a thought-provoking exploration of the fascinating rise and staggering fall of the show, and the true-crime genre it helped create.” Watch an exclusive clip from the documentary below, featuring one of To Catch a Predator’s “decoys.” Predators is directed, produced, edited and filmed by David Osit, produced by Jamie Gonçalves and Kellen Quinn, and edited by Nicolás Nørgaard Staffolani. Music is by Tim Hecker. Executive produced by Jennifer Ollman and co-executive produced by Arthur Bradford and Chad Beck. The film is presented by Sweet Relief Productions in association with Rosewater Pictures. In a recent interview with Deadline, Osit said he first saw To Catch a Predator as a sophomore in college. “I watched it, many people did at that point, with a lot of fascination, with a lot of laughter, and with a bit of ‘ick’ and disgust, both at what was happening and just how it makes you feel when you watch it,” Osit recalled. “The original show was appointment viewing. It was the era of Must-See TV… There were fewer than 20 episodes of the show that aired over three years, and people still talk about it 20 years later.” “It did something that nothing had really ever done before,” Osit continued, “which was to create entertainment through a combination of law enforcement and journalism working together. And it was entertainment, but it never became pure entertainment. It was always kind of shrouded in the aura of journalism, which is of course how they were able to do all of the gray-area things that they did in terms of people’s identities being revealed. And that of course is what gives the show its shock value is the fact that you’re watching someone’s life and on TV right after an episode of Friends.” The film shows many clips of Hansen on To Catch a Predator, illustrating the rhetorical tactics he deployed to question alleged perps who had just been exposed on camera. “The first things out of his mouth are, ‘Help me understand. Tell me why you’re here. I just want to know.’ It’s an invitation to share something that is now no longer private, it’s no longer just something ugly in the closet for these men,” Osit observed. “And the majority of these men feel a deep sense of embarrassment because somewhere in them they can see themselves from outside and realize that they’ve been caught doing something awful and they realize it. And that’s where the pain comes in and that’s where the audience’s pleasure comes in.” Osit added, “Is it bad to catch child predators? No, I wouldn’t argue that. But what happens when a show’s ratings, when there’s cultural incentive, when there’s spinoffs that are all along the lines of what To Catch a Predator was, when it becomes a way to just create a product, to sell, and that’s what happened.” In addition to Sundance, Predators has screened at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, DC/DOX in Washington DC, True/False in Missouri, Full Frame in North Carolina, Independent Film Festival Boston, and the Miami Film Festival. At BendFilm Festival in Oregon, it won Best Documentary Feature and the documentary directing award for Osit. The documentary was released theatrically in the U.S. in over 50 markets, beginning September 19 at New York’s Film Forum. In the clip below, an actress named Casey who was hired as a decoy for the show reflects on her experience participating in To Catch a Predator.
