Erin Lee Carr

Erin Lee Carr (born April 15, 1988) is an American documentary film director and producer. She is also an author for publications including ''VICE'' and her memoir called ''All That You Leave Behind: A Memoir'', a story about love, addiction, and the relationship between father and daughter. In 2015, ''Variety'' included Carr as one of its "10 Documakers To Watch". Carr made the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Her documentaries include '' Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop'', '' Mommy Dead and Dearest'' and the HBO documentaries '' I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter'' and '' At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal''. Carr also directed and produced the high-profile Netflix documentary ''Britney vs Spears'', chronicling Britney Spears's attempts to challenge her abusive 13-year conservatorship by her father Jamie Spears; the film made a number of accusations against Spears's business manager Lou Taylor.

Carr is the daughter of the late ''The New York Times'' media columnist David Carr.

Early life and education

Carr was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to journalist David Carr and Anna Lee.

Carr and her twin sister, Meagan Carr, were born two and a half months early. David Carr and Anna O'Leary lost custody of the twins because of their drug addiction. Carr and her sister went into foster care for a summer. When her father got out of rehab, he regained physical custody of the girls and in 1994 married Jill Rooney, who became Erin's step-mother.

In addition to her twin sister Meagan, a mental health worker, Carr has a half-sister named Maddie. The family lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then New Jersey.

In 2010, Carr graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts. In the Spring of 2010, Carr attended FAMU in Prague in the Czech Republic.

Career

In the Summer of 2009, Carr was an intern at Fox Searchlight Pictures, working in the public relations department. In the Fall of 2009, Carr worked as a Media Assistant at the Instructional Media Center in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In November 2010, she worked as an office production assistant on Lena Dunham's TV show, '' Girls''.

''VICE''

Carr worked as a college intern at ''VICE''. After graduation, in 2010 she got a full-time job at ''VICE'' where she worked up to an Associate Producer position for Vice Media's ''Motherboard'', an online magazine and video channel that focused on the intersection of technology, science and people. She was at ''VICE'' for three years.

In 2011, Carr co-produced the documentary ''Free The Network'' for Motherboard. The film depicted the efforts of the Free Network Foundation to provide Occupy Wall Street protestors in Zuccotti Park with Internet connectivity. The NYPD's treatment of the infrastructure and protesters was highlighted in a story called ''Who Smashed the Laptops from Occupy Wall Street? Inside the NYPD's Lost and Found''.

In 2012, Carr developed ''Spaced Out'' for ''Motherboard''. ''Spaced Out'' had twelve videos, nine of which Carr helped create. She helped produce ''UFO sightings in Colorado'', ''Using the Sun to Make Music'', ''The Man Who Hunts Spy Satellites'', ''Save the Last Great Telescope'', and ''The First Animal to Survive in Space''. Carr was an assistant producer for ''Building a Homemade Space Craft'', ''Blowing up Asteroids with NASA and Neil deGrasse Tyson'', ''New York's Strangest Astronaut'', and ''Homemade Mission to Mars by Tom Sachs''.

In 2013, Carr developed ''My Life Online'' for ''VICE'' ''Motherboard''. Carr produced three videos for this series: ''Shoenice22 Will Eat Anything for Fame'', ''The Story of Karl Welzein, According to @dadboner Creator Mike Burns'', and ''Jerome LOL on Remixing the Internet and the Ageless Beauty of Web 1.0''.

In 2013, Carr produced a documentary for ''VICE'' called ''Click. Print. Gun.'' about Cody Wilson, the owner of Defense Distributed. The film shows how 3D-printing is creating new issues with gun production. Wilson is against gun control and is working to create a full blueprint for a completely 3D printed gun with hopes to put it online for anyone to have access. The documentary won a 2014 Webby Award.

Vox Media

In June 2013, she left ''VICE'' for Vox Media's ''The Verge''. She worked as a producer, a position she held for four months. While at Vox, Carr curated and produced long and short stories for ''The Verge''.

HBO

In November 2013, Carr became a freelance director for HBO Documentary Films.

In April 2015, Carr's first documentary for HBO, '' Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop'' premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Released by HBO in May 2015, ''Thought Crimes'' is a documentary film about Gilberto Valle, an ex-New York City Police Officer who was arrested on two counts; one for kidnapping conspiracy and illegally gaining access to a law-enforcement database. ''Thought Crimes'' received positive reviews and was a finalist for the 2016 Cinema Eye Honors in the non-fiction film for television category.

In May 2017, HBO released Carr's documentary film '' Mommy Dead and Dearest'', which was about the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, allegedly by her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard. It was an official selection for SXSW, Hot Docs and DocAviv and was one of the most-watched documentaries on HBO in 2017.

In 2019, Carr's two-part HBO documentary ''I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter'' premiered at SXSW. The film chronicles the Michelle Carter criminal case. It was also an official selection at Hot Docs and the Montclair Film Festival. It was released on HBO in the Summer of 2019.

In 2019, Carr's film '' At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,'' premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, and then aired on HBO. The film follows the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, with a focus on the survivor's takes surrounding the predatory attitudes of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

In 2023, Carr directed and produced '' The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring'' focusing on Rachel Lee, the alleged mastermind behind The Bling Ring speaking out for the first time.

In 2024, Carr directed and produced '' I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders'' focusing on murderer Lois Riess, who gives her first interview to Carr.

Netflix

In 2018, Carr directed an episode of the Netflix documentary series ''Dirty Money'' called "Drug Short" which examines how big pharmaceutical companies exploit patients seeking life saving drugs.

Carr directed the limited series, '' How to Fix a Drug Scandal'', that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. ''How to Fix a Drug Scandal'' is a four-part documentary series that depicts the arrest and prosecution of Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan, two former state drug lab technicians. Dookhan was accused of forging reports and tampering with samples to produce desired results. ''How to Fix a Drug Scandal'' depicts the role of former Attorney General of Massachusetts Martha Coakley, who was accused of political cover up and of minimizing the length of time Farak was battling drug addictions to cocaine, meth, and other substances: from almost 10 years to only one and a half years.

After the February 2021 release and public reaction to '' Framing Britney Spears'', a ''New York Times'' presentation on FX, ''Bloomberg'' announced that Carr was working on an additional documentary to be streamed on Netflix about the Spears, namely her father Jamie Spears' and her former business manager Lou M. Taylor's control of the star's finances and career under a 13-year conservatorship.

Carr, along with Lena Dunham, was the executive producer of ''Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste'', released on Netflix in November 2022. The film came out to mixed reviews and controversy, including hundreds of women and men claiming that that film used their image against their consent, filing a lawsuit against Netflix to disallow the film, signing petitions, and creating viral videos protesting the violation.

Hulu

In 2024, Carr served as an executive producer on '' Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini'' In the first week of the series release, 3.6 million viewers tuned into the series, making it Hulu's most viewed documentary. That same year, Carr directed and produced '' Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara'' following the band Tegan and Sara, as they investigate a catfishing scheme affecting their fans.

Carr serves as creator and executive producer on the scripted series Murdaugh Murders starring Jason Clarke and Patricia Arquette.

Personal life

Carr lives in New York City. Carr has discussed her struggles with alcohol and becoming sober.

Bibliography

In April 2019, Carr published a memoir called ''All That You Leave Behind: A Memoir'' for Random House. ''All That You Leave Behind'' started out as a self-published Medium article called ''Still Rendering'' that Carr wrote a year after her father's death. The book describes Carr's growth in her career as a documentary filmmaker and is a celebration of her father, David Carr, that includes emails and GChat and other records that documented her relationship with him.

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Filmography

References

External links

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Erin Lee Carr
at ''Motherboard''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Erin Lee
1988 births
Living people
21st-century American women
American documentary film directors
American twins
American women documentary filmmakers
American women film directors
American women film producers
Film directors from Minnesota
Film directors from New York City
Film producers from Minnesota
People from Minneapolis
University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication alumni