This is part of our coverage of South by South West (SXSW) 2023.
In an early scene of Chris Kasick’s new documentary Citizen Sleuth, the film’s protagonist Emily Nestor visits a local tattoo parlor. She’s getting one of those punk-style mom tattoos, a big red heart inked into her right calf, but instead of “mom,” the tattoo spells out “true crime” in black script letters. Near the end, we see the tattoo again, but this time we’re in a doctor’s office, watching her wince as it is slowly removed.
The visual metaphor matches one of the film’s larger themes: certainty doesn’t last.
