First-time director explores mother’s murder in Madison
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 nailbiting 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.
In the end, he hopes all the hard work and potential family strife will simply help answer the biggest question of his life: Who killed his mother and why?