![]() ![]() The question we got a lot was, "Are you gonna solve it? Do you know who did it? Who do you think did it?" And it's like, That's not what this story is about. And that's not what executives always want to hear. I didn't want to focus on the brutality of the crime or the potential killers, but rather the characters and human stories and grief and loss-ultimately, to tell a story about identity. Madison Hamburg: It was a really difficult process, because I had set out to subvert true-crime conventions and expectations. Was it hard to get studios to buy into your vision for this? VICE: As much as Murder on Middle Beach is about trying to solve a mystery, it's also about family dynamics, trust, coping with trauma, and the line between healthy and unhealthy grieving. VICE spoke with Hamburg about the years-long process of making Murder on Middle Beach, and the mental and emotional toll chronicling his own mother's murder took on him. Murder on Middle Beach is a study in how tragedy impacts a family, and the unique breed of grief, trauma, and mistrust that an unsolved murder leaves in its wake. He interviews his grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and his father, not just about what happened on March 3, but about the way their lives have changed since Barbara Hamburg died. Instead of focusing solely on the grim details of his mother's killing, Hamburg paints a tender, nuanced portrait of who she was, and how her death affected him, his sister Ali, and the rest of his family. Much of Murder on Middle Beach is dedicated to trying to identify who might have killed Barbara Hamburg, but it's far from a standard true-crime thriller. He was never charged in connection to her death. ![]() On the morning she was killed, she was supposed to be in court, negotiating that debt with him and his attorney. He allegedly owed his ex-wife nearly $500,000 in alimony and child support at the time. The only suspect they named was Jeffrey Hamburg, Madison's father. The police never identified her murderer, and they haven't publicly discussed a possible motive. Her killer dragged her body across the yard and covered it with cushions, pulled from the family's lawn furniture. She had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and was stabbed repeatedly outside her home on the morning of March 3, 2010. He began to learn about the circumstances of his mother's death in depth. Hamburg held up his end of the bargain, returning to Madison in 2016 to continue work on the documentary. "My professor gave us an A, but with the condition that I never stop working on the project." "We turned in a trailer," Hamburg told VICE. ![]() He flew up to Madison, Connecticut, where Barbara Hamburg was killed, to interview his family members and meet with the police, collecting footage that would make its way into Murder on Middle Beach years later-but at the time, he couldn't manage to compile it all into a finished film. It began as a class project, one Hamburg thought might help "immortalize" his mother. That's where Murder on Middle Beach-a four-part HBO docuseries in which Hamburg investigates his mother's unsolved murder, which premieres on Sunday-was born. After taking a year off of school, he re-enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design. ![]()
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