How to Make a Tactful Film About the On-Air Suicide of a News Reporter

On July 15 1974, Florida news reporter Christine Chubbuck became the first person to commit suicide live on air. We say "first" because the act has, tragically, been repeated several times since. It's also said that the 1976 film Network was based on her death. In a sense, Christine's story of mental illness isn't uncommon—but the way her death played out in public certainly was.

American filmmaker Robert Greene was intrigued by the story the moment he heard about it. His fascination grew into a film, which premiered in Australia on Thursday night. Called Kate Plays Christine, his quasi-documentary follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil as she prepares to play Christine Chubbuck in a second, non-existent film. The audience watches as Kate tries to understand Christine and her motivations, exposing how closely ties between reality and fiction can form.

VICE met with Robert to talk about Christine's real-life story, and his unusual approach to her death.

VICE: Hi Robert, let's start with why. Why Christine Chubbuck?
Robert Greene: Well, for me it started around 2002 or 2003. I had a friend who asked, "Have you ever heard this story? Supposedly it's like Network." The details made it the most extraordinary thing—especially because of the fact she scripted the story of her own suicide [for other news reporters to read after her death] and that it was probably one of the last times something like that would be lost to history. There were no VCR recorders at that time, so only the station had the copy. [It's been rumoured for decades that the only people to have seen Christine's suicide were those watching the live broadcast]. Just a few years later, another guy committed suicide on live television and you can now find it on YouTube. I was intrigued, but my next thought was: I don't have the right to tell this story.

I would have struggled with that too.
Yeah, when you look at the details, what happened was actually horribly simple. Immediately I was sure that I wasn't the person to make this documentary, or at least not the person to make a straightforward documentary. I wrestled with that. But gradually, I had an idea: we'd have Kate play this role and that way I could interrogate my own feelings. So that's what this movie is about, really.

Would you say it's also an attempt to explore who Christine was?
Yes. We wanted to explore Christine, so we talked to people who knew her, most of whom had almost forgotten her. But the film is also about how when someone commits suicide—especially is such a memorable way—our instinct is to create a story out of it, because once you explain something you can put it away. But that's a flawed instinct. The film is more about the failure of storytelling to capture something that is, really, unspeakable. In a sense, you're watching is a movie that fails. And it's meant to fail. I think by failing to understand Christine you actually get a deeper sense of the real horror.

So in many ways, you're just exploring storytelling itself?
Well what I think is so intriguing about Christine is that she claimed to be protesting blood and guts television, but she created the most sensational blood and guts thing that's ever happened on television.

Okay, I know you're suggesting Christine's suicide isn't the real point of the movie, but I do want to know more. Is there still a recording of her suicide? What happened to the tape?
You discover this in the movie, we did find the tape. Since then there's a big news story that broke like a week ago—the person with the tape has now given it to a lawyer.

Does the film show the tape?
I don't really want to spoil it for you. Confirming the tape's existence and wrestling with why we want to see the tape in the first place, that sort of carries the last act of the film.

Okay, fair enough. You say you grappled with the idea of not being the right person to make this film. Now that you've gone and done it, how do you feel?
Look, I'm proud that we interrogated that feeling. I still feel that she committed suicide on television to make a statement, but she was a deeply disturbed woman who needed help. Yet 42 years later, we're still giving her this platform. I don't feel comfortable about that because she ended her life sort of wanting a platform.

Have you wondered what she'd think of your film?
I don't allow myself to think that way. Part of the whole thing is that we know so little about who she was. As I was saying before, there's a tendency to make a narrative out of what happened. But we just know so little. Her brother is still alive but he made it very clear that he doesn't want to talk about it. On some level I would be interested in him seeing the film and seeing how he deconstructs it. But I don't want to think about what Christine would think.

Some audiences might have preferred a straight documentary. Have you been happy with how the film has been received?
Yeah, people seem to really get it. People want to engage in movies that are trying to engage with them. A critic wrote this review saying she'd watched it a second time and she was struck by how much the audience, or the viewer, is active in creating its meaning. That's really what I wanted, so I'm happy.

Kate Plays Christine screens at the Sydney Film Festival on Sunday June 19. View the full schedule here.

Interview by Julian Morgans. Follow him on Twitter.