It begins by expressing the views of Joyce McKinney, an American woman who became entailed and involved with a lifestyle of a sexual cult. Using several other male personnel in interviews, it begins slowly to unravel how this cult and lifestyle had escalated into something more disturbing.
It uncovers how a mystery of the disappearance of a man called Kirk Anderson, that Joyce was involved with, and the journey that she, and; Keith Joseph (KJ), her bodyguard Gil Parker, and Jackson Shaw went on to try and find Kirk.
The four people involved travelled form the U.S, to England to find Kirk. As they passed through in to England the documentary shows how the world that they had become involved in was becoming more intrinsically connected with something more perverse and unruly.
The documentary unfolds to discover how the man, Kirk, was transformed, and was described by Joyce as having, ‘a personality alteration. There were two Kirks, Kirk number one, the man she fell in love with, and Kirk number two, who was cult Kirk.’
Joyce had a passion to be what was described as ‘inseminated’ by Kirk. The documentary explored further into how she took Kirk away to part in England where she had essentially captured and concealed him in a world that she created to try and rid his Mormonism nature. Joyce described how she took ‘the magic pants’ of Kirk. The interview further describes the emotions that Mormons as a religion where not meant to feel; such as love, sexual feelings, passion, or connections with a woman.
The detail further delved in to was how the Mormon culture interviewed the males, and transferred their beliefs onto their followers.
The Mormon religion had then reported Kirk as disappeared. In Storyville, the interview with Joyce describes how Kirk had found a newspaper that labelled him as disappeared.
The disappearance of Kirk had gripped media, and a television report shown on the documentary told of how Kirk was tied up, and a bag was placed over his head and he was kidnapped.
The full extent of the Mormon religion and the taboo nature was unravelled when Joyce had made a phone call to contact Kirk, and in the place where he was, Joyce explains how the phones were tapped, and recorded all conversation.
The documentary then unfolds into how Joyce became a prisoner, and was arrested for her actions.
Storyville, throughout, lets the interviewees unfold their tales, and give their impressions and account of actions. It transfers from being a story of one factor of beliefs and the interlinking personalities of two people, into a dramatic characterisation of love, entrapment, and religious philosophy, that grips the attention of the viewer as the programing becomes more emotionally personalised and shocking.
Joyce’s account of the actions took a dramatic twist when she described how she gained the attention of the media, by asking a stranger to mail the pieces of information she had hidden, to alert the press of her bail hearing.
The story of Joyce’s kidnap of Kirk was released to the press as she had appeared in court. As this came to print, it was described by Keith Joseph in the documentary as ‘the perfect tabloid story.’
The Daily Express and Daily Mirror where described as being locked (in battle). Joyce describes how the phenomenon that was her story, had transformed her in to celebrity. That celebrity status transformed Joyce’s life around the court case in to something that she described as having a ‘life of its own.’
From this point the interviewing picks up pace in the documentary as it flits between the interviewees and the cuts to the newspapers it is referring to.
Joyce sold her story to the Daily Express for £40,000, as she had fled to Canada with thirteen suitcases, whilst pretending to be deaf.
The Daily Mirror was then introduced as investigating Joyce. This lead to photographer’s trying to capture Joyce, and more information including phone calls and contacts.
The Daily Mirror photographer, Kent Gavin, discusses how he identified one of Joyce’s friends, Steve, and used him to find new photographs of Joyce. Some of these where described as un-publishable.
The Daily Mirror then run the pictures in a weekly feature story, depicting Joyce as ‘a temptress in the garden of evil.’ Alternatively, the Daily Express run photographs of Joyce as a nun; a victim of cruel circumstances.
The Sun newspaper had used some photographs, of which they had later admitted that they had used and cropped photographs of another female’s body, and placed Joyce’s head on to this.
The Daily Mirror photographer, Kent, described how the dossier of up to 1000 pictures of Joyce, none of which he had taken, but had instead gleaned from other people associated with Joyce, went missing when the newspaper changed ownership.
The documentary ruins through the process of how Joyce’s life had become a tabloid sensation. Joyce recollects how the tabloid press had begun to ruin her life, and how this had affected her as a person.
Storyville views the interviewees face on in the studio, cutting from past to present and each interviewee. This maximises the potential of the expressions that the interviewees show, and their emotions on camera.
The documentary profiles the full story in exemplary style, showing true detail of the occurrences, and how Joyce’s story became a factor of obsession for tabloid newspapers.
The proliferation of Joyce was fully explored and comprehensively protracted onto the viewer through a mass of evidential documentation, a mixture of interviews, and an orbit of questions that raised the topical and biographical profile of Joyce and her remarkably gripping story.
Storyville - Tabloid: Sex in Chains was aired on the BBC in March 2012. It can be viewed on the BBC I player at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01f13f6/Storyville_20112012_Tabloid_Sex_in_Chains/
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