The film uncovering the true story behind ‘thrill killer’ Alyssa Bustamante hits Amazon Prime this week. Bustamante, who was just 15 years old when she murdered her 9 year old neighbor Elizabeth Olten in 2009, is not frowned upon or judged in the film; instead the filmmakers looked at her for being a real person, something which angered folks in her home town deeply.
“Alyssa: Portrait of a Teen Killer” (also known as “My Name is A by anonymous” for its DVD release) was shot very shortly after the real life events took place and completed in early 2011. But its touchy subject matter, along with legal battles for distribution rights, didn’t see the film’s release until late 2014, and it’s just now arriving to mainstream audiences through VOD.
Director Shane Ryan, who’s notorious in the underground film community for consistently tackling such gruesome realistic subject matter, defends the film; “The media believed this was a 2 minute sensationalized news clips at best. I felt, I needed actually, to hear, to know, the full story. Since nobody would give it to me, I made it happen myself. If we took the time to understand the origin of these types of crimes, maybe such heinous things could be prevented. Especially when the crimes involve perpetrators who are just kids. Films like this need to be made. Stories like this need to be heard. Something’s gotta change, whether you’re ready to deal with it or not.”
Ryan was previously criticized in 2009 when he announced he wanted to make a film about the relationship between Jaycee Dugard and her captor, Phillip Garrido. He dropped that project to make “Alyssa.”
Wild Eye Releasing picked up domestic distribution for the film and Mad Sin Cinema produced.
https://wildeyereleasing.com/
https://www.madsincinema.com/
