Imperial Valley Press

First-time director explores mother’s murder in docuseries

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Madison Hamburg was 18 years old when he got the call from his sister: Their mother had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death outside her home in the affluent southeaste­rn Connecticu­t town of Madison.

Now 29, Hamburg has directed a nail-biting and hauntingly personal documentar­y series about his mother Barbara’s murder, which remains unsolved. His directoria­l debut, “Murder on Middle Beach,” premieres on HBO Max on Sunday.

Hamburg began filming the series in college as part of a school project. It was just three years after the March 2010 killing, and Hamburg was recovering from a drug addiction and still reeling from his mother’s violent end.

“I decided to start navigating this journey into understand­ing who she was and why the murder might have happened,” said Hamburg, who began uncovering a side of his mother’s life he never knew about. Each interview he conducted only led to more questions and possibilit­ies.

When it was time to turn in the project, Hamburg wasn’t finished.

“We turned in a trailer — or a teaser — and my professor basically made me promise to never stop working on it and he gave me an A in return,” Hamburg said recently from his home in Brooklyn. “And I never stopped working on it.”

The genre- busting four-episode documentar­y is largely told from Hamburg’s perspectiv­e and explores how his mother’s death impacted him and his family. It also delves into potential suspects, including several of Hamburg’s own family members.

 ?? HBO VIA AP ?? This image released by HBO shows, from left, Jeffrey Hamburg, Ali Hamburg, Barbara Beach Hamburg and Madison Hamburg in a family photo used for the documentar­y series “Murder on Middle Beach.” .
HBO VIA AP This image released by HBO shows, from left, Jeffrey Hamburg, Ali Hamburg, Barbara Beach Hamburg and Madison Hamburg in a family photo used for the documentar­y series “Murder on Middle Beach.” .

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