Q&A with the director of "Cropsey"

Q&A with the director of "Cropsey"

I recently reviewed a documentary entitled Cropsey, about a child killer on staten Island. The title refers to an urban legend commonly discussed at campfires in the summer in the Northeast. Beginning with the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, the film recalls the police investigation of the crime, and interviews retired cops and citizen searchers and neighborhood watchers, many of whom are still active in the community. I emailed some questions to one of the directors, Joshua Zeman, who made the film with Barbara Brancaccio. Here is the result. The film earned a B+ from me, and Doug Holm like it as well.

1. [Ed Goldberg] You have produced a serious and complex movie here about a subject that won’t go away, alas. But, I was expecting a film about urban legends. How did you decide to use Cropsey as your entry point?

[Joshua Zeman] Well, The urban legend of Cropsey was my entry point to the story. As a kid, I remember my camp counselors telling us the story of Cropsey , then taking us to an abandoned institution next to Willowbrook where they would leap out of the shadows, with axe in hand, literally scaring the shit out of us. I hadn't really thought that much about Crospey again, until Jennifer disappeared years later, that's when the urban legend of the killer in the woods really became much more than a ghost story....for the kids in Staten Island it became real. So, why make a procedural doc about a crime (following the trail and investigating the evidence) when in the end we were much more interested in the storytelling aspect of this case. This case isn't about guilt or innocence, its about the stories we tell ourselves around the campfire.

2. Do you have any information about whether these kinds of abductions are more prevalent now, or whether they are just better reported?

Stranger abduction make up such a small amount of actual missing child cases, but they receive much more press. I think stranger abductions make up .03% of all missing children cases. More often than not, its someone whom the child knows.....a relative, neighbor, a parent etc. It was really during the 80's when the whole stranger abduction scenario was really blown out of proportion, until it reached the point of hysteria....its was all about "not taking candy from strangers," and strangers in white vans stalking the playground. However, this was happening at the same time children really were disappearing from Staten Island, so it created a situation that was totally out of proportion with reality. In today's world, I think we are reporting & tracking these crimes with much more sophistication, but I also think everyone has realized there aren't as many stranger abductions as we once thought, which make it a little less salacious for the press.

3. Willowbrook was a national disgrace, but a more immediate one for New York, especially Staten Island. Every kid knew about Bellevue or Pilgrim State or Creedmoor, or whatever local asylum existed nearby. I wonder if Willowbrook figured more prominently for you because of its size and proximity?

As a kid, I don't think it really mattered that Willowbrook was more infamous then some of the other mental institutions around (Pilgrim State or Creedmoor). I think regardless of the actual history kids are always going to make up stories about escaped mental patients roaming the abandoned buildings. And Willowbrook was pretty large (365 acres) although about 1/3 the size of Pilgrim State which was at one time the largest institution in the world....but for the adults it think it was a completely different story. Remember Cropsey isn't just a story about children's urban legends, its about Adult urban legends as well. So when the adults heard about Jennifer's disappearance being tied to Willowbrook, their imaginations went wild, because for them the crowding, the medical test, the conditions highlighted in Geraldo's piece they all played in to the adults fears.

4. I was fascinated by the passion and dedication of the search committee. Does it, or a descendant, still function on Staten Island?

The Friends of Jennifer, the organization started by Donna, does exist, but obviously without as much immediacy. There were a few other missing persons cases that Donna helped on, and one in particular that she actually helped solve. This was before, we really started creating databases, which obviously help identify patterns and reveal critical bits of info.

5. Is Staten Island still as bucolic as it was, or has it become urbanized?

The scales have actually been tipped on the other side of urbanization. The development on the island, aided by politicians and other business owners, really went unchecked for way too long. Now there's an extreme overcrowding problem, with horrible traffic, overcrowded schools, and a real lack of urban planning - so its a little sad that this once bucolic place that still had farms in the 60&70's is so overrun with townhouses. I guess it was apropos that that was going to be the case.

6. What are you working on now?

I'm trying to write a fictionalized version of the Cropsey.