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Interview with Katharine English, director of "Cannibal: The Real Hannibal Lecters."
HBO: Why did you make the film?
Katharine English: Although making a film about serial cannibal killers was not high on my list of priorities at the time or something that I would have imagined doing in my career, once I started thinking and reading about the subject I was fascinated. Cannibalism is such an extraordinarily abhorrent act, and many would argue that these people are just born evil, yet I have a sense that it is deeply psychologically motivated. I was concerned about how I would mentally handle all the gruesome details that we would come across in the course of research. However, no film to our knowledge had ever attempted to examine a group of serial cannibal killers and try and piece together why they might cannibalise. This was too much of a challenge to miss.
HBO: How scared were you interviewing these cannibals? Did you have any protection or security?
Engligh: Actually meeting and interviewing the cannibals was something I was nervous about, particularly Issei Sagawa who lives free in Tokyo. An hour or so after I arrived in Tokyo after a long flight from London, our female Japanese fixer and I went to meet him in a coffee shop. We did not have security. It was really a question of taking a deep breath, shaking his hand and getting on with it. As with any interviewee, my job is to make him feel that he could trust and talk to me. However, there were many moments when the crew and I couldn't quite believe that we were out and about with a cannibal and we found accepting drinks and food at his house particularly difficult.
HBO:Is there a moment that stands out most for you in the documentary?
English: Interviewing Pat Kennedy, the police office who took Jeffrey Dahmer's confession over a 6 week period was a great privilege. I was touched by the relationship developed between the two men, vital to obtain a full and detailed confession, but genuine none the less. It is hard to accept that someone like Dahmer who repeatedly perpetrated such appalling acts and took so many innocent lives could have a soul and conscience, but Pat Kennedy convinced me that this was the case.
HBO: How complete are the scientific explanations for why these people became cannibals?
English: Clearly there are not sufficient numbers of cannibals alive in the world on which to base proper scientific studies. We therefore collated existing scientific research that although not entirely relevant would contribute to an understanding of the cannibalistic urge; eg studies on psychopathic personality. Our overall aim was to discover what factors - childhood, environmental, psychological, neurological and physiological - might predispose to cannibalistic behaviour. It was remarkable how many overlapping factors were shared by the serial cannibal killers, though our findings are somewhat amateur.
HBO: What was the most difficult part about the filmmaking process?
English: Having to look into the eyes of Arthur Shawcross - the killer of 13 people - for the duration of a two hour interview was one of the most draining experiences of my career. His eyes seemed so dead to me.
HBO: What kinds of films have you made before this?
English: I have been making documentaries for nearly 10 years. My first full length documentary was Survival in the Skies, about the TWA800 crash and the occasionally conflicting FBI and NTSB investigation into the cause of the crash.
I also enjoy history and made a series Great Military Blunders for which I traveled all over the world, including Iraq, where the British Army fought in the First World War.
By far the most moving experience was making Heroes of Ground Zero. Several days after September 11th, I flew to NY and made a film following two firehouses in the weeks following the tragedy. It was screened on PBS on the anniversary 2002.
HBO:What are you working on now?
English: I have just completed a documentary about people who suffer from Narcolepsy for the BBC. I am now starting a long term 7-UP type film following six parents who have had children with different disabilities.
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