Ruggero Deodato made a film so convincingly brutal that Italian authorities arrested him for murder, and he had to track down actors he had paid to disappear and produce them alive in court. This episode examines the life and legacy of the Italian director through his notorious 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, beginning with the sensationalized news coverage during Italy's Years of Lead that made him want to indict the audience for its own voyeurism.

The conversation explores his blend of Mondo shock documentaries with the neorealist techniques he learned from Roberto Rossellini, the choice of grainy 16mm film, and the grueling production in Leticia, Colombia, where he screamed at unprotected local crew, berated actress Francesca Ciardi, kept indigenous extras inside a burning hut, and ordered the on-camera killing of seven animals. It then fo ...