The director of Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet, Rachel Dretzin, talks to The Contending about what it was like to recount the downfall of Samuel Bateman through Christine and the other women’s eyes.
Rachel Dretzin has directed two Netflix documentaries on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Keep Sweet: Prey and Obey from 2022 and now Trust Me: The False Prophet.
However, unlike the former doc, which followed the crimes of Warren Jeffs, Trust Me has a central figure, almost like a host, walking us through the story of Samuel Bateman. Christine Marie and her husband Tolga get up close and personal with Bateman, filming him and his 20-plus wives with unrestricted access over the course of many months.
“Christine is sort of our proxy,” said Dretzin. “She’s learning about what’s happening as we are; we are as she is. So a lot of the emotional ride is Christine’s emotional ride that we’re going through. As a director, it was helpful to have that as a sort of anchor for the narrative. I also find Christine to be really fascinating and complicated. And so I enjoy being able to sort of unfurl her as the series goes on, you get to know her and understand her better. I think people often experience a shift in the way they feel about her at the beginning.”
The Downfall of Samuel Bateman
Over the course of four episodes, Christine infiltrates the community as an ally and unravels Bateman and his crimes, which include sexual abuse of minors, with wives as young as 9 years old.
“Christine and Tolga knew that it was very sensitive material,” said Dretzin. “But as we built trust, I had already spent a lot of time reporting in the area, so I really understood the culture in a way that a lot of people can’t when they haven’t had the time there.”
Unlike Christine, Dretzin doesn’t have a background in the FLDS. However, there’s one thing that truly fascinates her about the community.
“It sort of blows your mind that it goes on in this country in time. And I became very, I would say, compelled by the women, particularly the women who had found the fortitude to leave, which takes so much grit and so much courage. And I began to see it as a women’s story of women standing up, finding their voice. I think that ultimately that’s the thing that has been the most powerful for me is because we see these people wearing prairie dresses, and they have this funny hairstyle. We think of them as like Martians. But the more you get to know them, the more you realize that that’s not it at all. They’re just people born into a really weird set of beliefs and circumstances and conditions. And you start to relate to them.”
Interviews with Julia and Nomz in Trust Me: The False Prophet
Many of the women, like Julia and Nomz, are distrustful of the media, which made the sit-down interviews challenging for the director. Julia was the key whistleblower to help bring Bateman down, and as one of his wives, Nomz went to prison for her participation.
“They were both willing, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. This is a culture that teaches people from birth not to trust cameras and media at all. And they’re very, very closed to outsider. I think both Nomz and Julia, by the time I met them, there was something inside them that really needed to tell this story. Julia was wrestling with it. She was ping-ponging. I think ultimately a big reason Julia did it was for Christine, because she loved Christine. And she felt she knew Christine was misunderstood and that everybody felt betrayed. And I think she wanted to tell the story of how Christine had helped her. And that was a big part of it.”
But sometimes, the women couldn’t avoid the cameras and the media.
In one of the most disturbing scenes in the doc, Bateman tries to flee with his wives and gets pulled over in Flagstaff, Arizona. The cops’ body cam footage shows little fingers clinging to the back of the van, hiding from the authorities. This became national news and led to his imprisonment.
“It’s just such an incredible moment because you don’t see these people interacting with the sort of formal outside world. So when you see them having to like talk to the police, it’s fascinating, you know?”
Trust Me: The False Prophet is streaming on Netfilx.
