Post by sadie on Jul 25, 2011 13:36:55 GMT -5
New Documentary probes Crash that killed 8 people.
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Diane Schuler drove two miles in the wrong direction on the Taconic State Parkway, ultimately killing eight people including herself, her daughter and three nieces.
"There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane," an intense and diligent effort to determine exactly how this could have happened, does a whole lot of digging and not much finding.
In that sense this documentary is curiously unsatisfying to everyone - including, one suspects, filmmaker Liz Garbus, as well as survivors, family, friends and those who simply read the story in the paper.
How could something like this happen? How could someone climb into a car with five children under the age of 10 and do something that virtually guaranteed them all a death brutal beyond imagination?
Police investigators felt the autopsy on Schuler answered at least the physical part of that question. Her blood contained more than twice the alcohol level of a drunken driver as well as large quantities of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
She was beyond blotto - so drugged she may not have had a clue what she was doing.
Still, that leaves the bigger question: Why anyone would drink and smoke that much when she was transporting all those kids.
The two people on whom Garbus' film focuses, Diane's husband, Daniel, and her sister-in-law Jay, say she would not have. They say there must be another explanation, that the toxicology report was wrong or that Diane must have suffered a stroke or some other physical impairment.
The Diane they knew, Daniel and Jay declare, was the most conscientious mother in the world. She would never have knowingly put children at risk.
Garbus talks to dozens of family and friends, and most echo that story. There's only an occasional glimpse of things most people didn't see, about how Diane smoked marijuana late at night to relax, or how she seemed to have serious and painful dental problems she didn't talk much about.
A few people declined to be in this film, including Jackie Hance, the sister-in-law whose three children were killed. But Garbus seems to have reached almost everyone who would have hard information on Diane or the events leading up to the crash.
Their stories are more chilling than revealing.
Several motorists say she had a calm, serene look on her face and was driving in a laser-straight path.
It doesn't help that Daniel, who is now raising their one surviving son, Brian, comes across as mildly elusive - or perhaps still shell-shocked.
Mostly, though, all the evidence together doesn't add up to an answer. Whatever went wrong with Aunt Diane that day, we don't know and may never know.
(One caution to viewers: While most of the film is talking heads, a scene or two toward the end are startlingly graphic. Just be prepared.)
Read more: www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2011/07/25/2011-07-25_theres_something_wrong_with_aunt_diane_review_highway_tragedy_documentary_digs_b.html#ixzz1T8xTBUbW
****************************************
Diane Schuler drove two miles in the wrong direction on the Taconic State Parkway, ultimately killing eight people including herself, her daughter and three nieces.
"There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane," an intense and diligent effort to determine exactly how this could have happened, does a whole lot of digging and not much finding.
In that sense this documentary is curiously unsatisfying to everyone - including, one suspects, filmmaker Liz Garbus, as well as survivors, family, friends and those who simply read the story in the paper.
How could something like this happen? How could someone climb into a car with five children under the age of 10 and do something that virtually guaranteed them all a death brutal beyond imagination?
Police investigators felt the autopsy on Schuler answered at least the physical part of that question. Her blood contained more than twice the alcohol level of a drunken driver as well as large quantities of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
She was beyond blotto - so drugged she may not have had a clue what she was doing.
Still, that leaves the bigger question: Why anyone would drink and smoke that much when she was transporting all those kids.
The two people on whom Garbus' film focuses, Diane's husband, Daniel, and her sister-in-law Jay, say she would not have. They say there must be another explanation, that the toxicology report was wrong or that Diane must have suffered a stroke or some other physical impairment.
The Diane they knew, Daniel and Jay declare, was the most conscientious mother in the world. She would never have knowingly put children at risk.
Garbus talks to dozens of family and friends, and most echo that story. There's only an occasional glimpse of things most people didn't see, about how Diane smoked marijuana late at night to relax, or how she seemed to have serious and painful dental problems she didn't talk much about.
A few people declined to be in this film, including Jackie Hance, the sister-in-law whose three children were killed. But Garbus seems to have reached almost everyone who would have hard information on Diane or the events leading up to the crash.
Their stories are more chilling than revealing.
Several motorists say she had a calm, serene look on her face and was driving in a laser-straight path.
It doesn't help that Daniel, who is now raising their one surviving son, Brian, comes across as mildly elusive - or perhaps still shell-shocked.
Mostly, though, all the evidence together doesn't add up to an answer. Whatever went wrong with Aunt Diane that day, we don't know and may never know.
(One caution to viewers: While most of the film is talking heads, a scene or two toward the end are startlingly graphic. Just be prepared.)
Read more: www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2011/07/25/2011-07-25_theres_something_wrong_with_aunt_diane_review_highway_tragedy_documentary_digs_b.html#ixzz1T8xTBUbW
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