Out of the Darkness With his latest chronicle of a serial killer, a filmmaker brings a writer’s quest for justice to light. Graham Flashner You can call filmmaker Joe Berlinger a "true-crime pioneer," as many have, but he much prefers to be known as a "social-justice documentarian." "There's a lot of irresponsible filmmaking out there that just wallows in the injustices of other people without any kind of social-justice element," Berlinger says. "My threshold for wanting to get involved in a story is, is there a light we can shine on it? Is there a greater reason to tell this story?"