Sundance Channel presents the acclaimed true-crime documentary The Staircase, an eight-part series by Oscar®-winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Murder on a Sunday Morning). The Staircase, which follows the thrilling twists and turns of the investigation into the cause of death of Durham, NC resident and Nortel executive Kathleen Peterson, will premiere as a special Sundance Channel DOCday series beginning on April 4, 2005, with two episodes airing back-to- back every Monday night at 9:00pm.
The Staircase, a Maha Films production, is the latest film by de Lestrade, who won the 2002 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature for Murder on a Sunday Morning. It was produced by Oscar-winning producer Denis Poncet.
The Staircase delves into the mystery surrounding the death of Kathleen Peterson, a Nortel executive who was married to novelist Michael Peterson. On the night of December 9, 2001, an agitated Michael Peterson called 911 and told the operator that he had found his wife, unconscious but still breathing, at the bottom of the stairs. When the police arrived, they found Kathleen lying dead in a pool of blood and began treating the home as a crime scene. One week later, Michael Peterson was charged with first-degree murder.
In eight tautly structured chapters, The Staircase takes viewers inside an unpredictable real-life drama, as Peterson’s sons and adopted daughters rally to his defense and his legal team prepares to battle the prosecution. Meanwhile, Durham’s district attorney and his assistant build a case that will put the Peterson marriage – and Michael Peterson’s private life – at the center of the trial. Reviewing the series, which ran in Canada as Death on the Staircase, Henrietta Walmark of The Globe and Mail wrote, “Death on the Staircase is a rare thing: an eight-hour documentary with twists and turns as compelling as any found in classic whodunits…. It's a masterful work from Jean-Xavier de Lestrade … that will leave you unsettled.”
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