PREDATORS

A surprising exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the popular television show TO CATCH A PREDATOR, designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested.

A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series TO CATCH A PREDATOR ensnared sex offenders while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes. Looking back on the program, and the franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit (CUFF.Docs 2015 selection THANK YOU FOR PLAYING) turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America's obsession with watching people at their lowest. PREDATORS delves into the murk of human nature to observe hunter, predator, subject and spectator alike, all ensnared in a complicated web of entertainment as far as the eye can see.