SERIESFEST SHINES A SPOTLIGHT ON STORYTELLERS AND THE NEW SERIES YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING
First Published on Forbes.com
DURING A TIME WHERE IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE ENDLESS TELEVISION SHOW OPTIONS RIGHT AT OUR FINGERTIPS, A FESTIVAL OUT OF DENVER CALLED SERIESFEST IS QUICKLY GROWING IN NOTORIETY BY SHOWCASING A DIVERSE AND ECLECTIC GROUP OF MODERN EPISODIC STORYTELLERS.
The Girl from Plainville and Dr. Death featured:
A popular true crime series on Hulu is The Girl From Plainville, which follows the real-life story and heavily publicized trial of Michelle Carter (played by Elle Fanning) in the “texting suicide” of Conrad Roy (played by Colton Ryan) in 2014.
Under his overall deal with Universal Content Productions (UCP), Patrick Macmanus is the co-showrunner, writer, and executive producer of The Girl From Plainville and the showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the limited Peacock true crime series Dr. Death. Macmanus shared his thoughts with me about how SeriesFest has provided recognition to his hardworking production colleagues with his latest projects.
“There is an immense amount of work behind those shows, not by me necessarily, but by the crew and the cast - that’s a validation for their work,” Macmanus says. “The opportunity to be able to validate their work is incredible to me.”
For Macmanus, the authentic storytelling and entertainment value of these shows are simply not enough for him. Alongside the consistent efforts of Macmanus’s wife Ioli Filmeridis, Littleton Road Productions/Philanthropy has created social action campaigns to support the public, inspired by Macmanus’s true crime projects.
“For Dr. Death, it was for the ‘For The Patients’ campaign to raise awareness about patient safety and to be able to try to give patients the tools that they need to protect themselves and their loved ones. For The Girl From Plainville, it’s the ‘Let’s Talk’ campaign which is to try to raise awareness for mental health, try to give people the tools they need, and give them the permission to reach out for someone to talk to and to listen to them.