Picture of the Week #3: Of Dolls and Murder

Of Dolls and Murder is a documentary by Susan Marks and John Dehn, currently in production. It uses a series of dollhouse crime scenes, created by heiress Frances Glessner Lee in the 1930s and 40s to train detectives, as a starting point for a larger critique of myths about forensic investigation and the public fascination with mysterious deaths. It has narration by John Waters and apparently some beautiful photography of those fascinating dioramas. Apparently, they’re still used to train crime scene investigators (who, thanks largely to CSI, we tend to think of as preternaturally gifted but technologically-enhanced savants) in how to read and interpret a scene. It all sounds creepy, macabre, and an excellent idea, illuminating one of those strange little corners of the world and showing how it reflects into the wider cultural environment. I like it already, and if your interest is piqued, you can see more pictures at the filmmakers Flickr pages. Or, if you’re one of those people, you can follow the film’s progress on Twitter, or on the official blog. Looks like they’ve got all their web marketing covered. If that’s not enough, you can watch a clip below: