Richard J. Ofshe

Movies

Paul: The Secret Story of Olympia's Satanic Sheriff
Professor Emeritus of Sociology U.C. Berkley
An essay documentary about Paul Ingram, the former sheriff of Olympia, Washington. Paul was sent to jail in 1988 for sexually assaulting his daughters in satanic rituals. He is the only person in the modern era to be accused of and confess to being a part of a satanic ritual abuse cult. The film explores the complexities of the criminal case through primary police documents, recordings of Paul's interrogations and speculative dramatizations, finally probing at the unsettling symmetry between Paul's unstable memory and our own civic forgetfulness. Through archival newscasts and a 16mm historical walking tour, the film is ultimately concerned with the occult nature of memory and the very real monsters within ourselves.