Brazilian filmmaker details behind-the-scenes of the Menendez Brothers documentary on Netflix
The 32-year-old Brazilian filmmaker Fernanda Schein is one of the people responsible for the documentary “The Menendez Brothers Case,” which was released on Netflix in October. The production was added to the streaming platform’s catalog after the success of the true crime series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” created by Ryan Murphy.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Fernanda, who was part of the editing team for the documentary, explained the process of revisiting this story.
She revealed that before the production gained attention and the petitions for the release of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez became frequent, the case was little known outside of the United States. This aspect was one of the reasons she was chosen for the job.
“Although it wasn’t a widely recognized story in California, it was something very specific to there, so I didn’t know it, and that was a deliberate choice from the production, as well as from the brilliant Argentine director Alejandro Hartmann,” she explained. “They wanted the story to be told from a non-American perspective because it had already been saturated by their view,” she added.
Fernanda also mentioned that interest in the case arose from changes in society. According to testimonies, the brothers, accused of murdering their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, had suffered constant abuse, which is believed to have motivated the crime.
“I think part of the success of the project lies in raising the discussion of how each person would react to sexual abuse, something that is now being validated but was not considered at the time,” she said. “That was the most interesting part of participating, editing a story that may have an impact in the future,” she added.
She also believes that the Menendez brothers’ sentence should be reconsidered: “They need to pay for what they did, but not with a life sentence as it stands. It was not taken into account that the crime was premeditated due to a series of abuses that led them to believe they were in danger. We have evolved as a society, and this needs to be reassessed,” she concluded.
This documentary was the first of its kind in Fernanda Schein’s career, and she revealed that she created strategies to avoid being emotionally affected by the story.
“When I started, I was a bit anxious because I’m a very impressionable person. But I saw so much purpose in the story that I decided to do it. At first, it really affects us, but then we become a bit desensitized to the physical material we have in front of us,” she shared.
To maintain composure, Fernanda would remember her own father, who is a doctor: “When a doctor sees someone very hurt or in great pain for the first time, it’s an emotional shock. But over time and with professionalism, they learn to separate the emotional and use 100% of their reason to help the patient,” she compared.
