This month we put the spotlight on producer Lisa Albert (she/her) who has taken a bold approach to challenge true-crime tropes and spark social change. Her latest production KillJoy is a deep dive into the profound impact of family homicide on children and the community left in its wake.

With over 15 years experience producing films Lisa has remained steadfast on focusing her work on social justice issues, especially gender inequality. Lisa’s background in anthropology underpins her approach to producing factual content that deepens audiences’ understanding of contemporary social issues. KillJoy explores the reality of family violence on women and children, highlighting the statistic that, on average, one woman is killed every week by an intimate partner in Australia and an unknown number of children’s lives are devastated.

KillJoy follows Kathryn Joy (they/them), who was an infant when their father killed their mother to uncover who their mother really was, what lead to her death and how the justice system allowed Kathryn’s father to serve only 22 months for killing Caroyln and then allowed him to raise his three children, back in the family home. 

“We knew we had to create an impact, find ways to help change minds to make this film happen,” Lisa explained. “MeToo wasn’t a global phenomenon when we met Kathryn and society wasn’t really talking much about family violence. Noone was acknowledging children in these circumstances.”

KillJoy was first conceived in 2015 and whilst the project didn’t gain momentum until 2021, it has been nine years since Lisa’s partner, the director, Vincent Lamberti (he/him) first met Kathryn.  

For Lisa and Vincent, it was important to include Kathryn in discussions about the creative vision of the film. “Trust and collaboration were (and still are) ongoing and it was important in those early days to understand Kathryn’s willingness to allow a film crew into their lives. Understanding their boundaries were equally important to framing our vision as well as financing the production”. 

Lisa explained how the whole process was done with a great level of sensitivity and duty of care to everyone involved. All shoots were done with great sensitivity and reflects the high standard of care that the whole production team adopted. Everyone in front and behind the camera were offered access to independent debriefing and both Vincent and Lisa also made it clear that they would be available to anyone, at any point. “Obviously, this can take a toll and I can be open that I accessed debriefing at times. As the solo producer of a film with so many duty of care elements, that was really necessary at times” Lisa shared.

The filmmakers’ aim for KillJoy was to successfully shift the narrative by starting where most true-crime content ends and centering the voice of a victim/survivor. “For a long time we resisted leaning into the true crime element and in hindsight this resistance was holding the project back. The truth is a crime did occur and people like Kathryn live with that fact every day. It became clear, to be true to the story we had to find a creative way to reframe the crime in a way that reflected and centred those left behind”.   

“By incorporating a contemporary understanding of family violence into the retelling of the crime and centring the child’s voice, we were able to weave in a call to action and build an impact campaign on the back of KillJoy’s release”.  

KillJoy is a Stan original and produced by Fringe Dweller Films.

For support the follow services are available:

1800Respect 1800 737 732
WIRE (Vic) 1300 134 130
SafeSteps Family Violence Response Centre 1800 015 188
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
13YARN  13 92 76 is the first national crisis support line for First Nations mob who are feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty coping.
QLife – anonymous and free LGBTIQ+ peer support and referral for people in Australia. Call 1800 184 527