To Catch a Predator was a popular US television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. Folkestone Documentary Festival is thrilled to present the UK premiere of Predators - a chilling, thought-provoking exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show, and the world it helped to create.
A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch a Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into a moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes. But why did we watch so voraciously — and why do we continue to devour its web-based, clickbait-driven offshoots?
Looking back on the show and the countless franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America's obsession with watching people at their lowest.
Predators is a chilling, edge of your seat film that 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.
“Brilliant. Measured, nuanced and finally gut-punching.” Variety
“Straddles various lines, and perspectives, with impressive confidence.” Daily Beast
“Absolutely fascinating.” Rolling Stone
“Stunning. Much more than another attempt to interrogate our international obsession with true crime culture.” Rogerebert.com
2025 / US / English / UK Premiere
