In a new documentary, titled Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death, renowned documentarian Werner Herzog (pictured) examines the case of a triple homicide in Conroe, Texas, exploring why people kill and why states carry out executions. The film features intimate conversations with many of those involved in the case, including 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry, who was executed shortly after his interview with Herzog in 2010. The film also includes interviews with Perry’s co-defendant, Jason Burkett, who was given a life sentence; the woman who lost both her mother and brother in the crime; the Texas death row chaplain; and one of the guards who performed executions. Richard Corliss, a reviewer from Time Magazine, commented on “Into the Abyss”: “It provides intimate glimpses of people usually seen, and then only briefly, as faces on a post-office wall or numbers in a cemetery. Herzog asks viewers not to agree with his position on the state’s right to kill, but to spend some time with folks who would kill, or be killed, for the sake of a red Camaro.” “Into the Abyss” will be released In New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles on November 11, 2011, with a wider release in the following weeks. Among Herzog’s other works are his recent “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010) and the award-winning “Grizzly Man.” See below for a trailer to the film.

(Press release, “Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death” (with trailer), a documentary by Werner Herzog, IFC Films, forthcoming November 2011). See Multimedia.

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