MIPTV 2023: Keshet sells "My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered" to Ch4 and SBS

Keshet International has closed two key deals for the 3x60’ true crime documentary series "My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered" by Oscar Pistorius,  around the tenth anniversary of her death and Oscar Pistorius’ return to court to request early parole. “'My Name is Reeva' is a sensitively told three-part series produced by an international team of talented creatives," Kelly Wright, KI’s MD of Distribution said. "We are pleased to have enabled this important docuseries to find a home with Channel 4 in the UK and SBS in Australia, where I’m sure audiences will be as moved as I was to see the impact of the victim-offender dialogue on Reeva’s ageing parents and their on-going quest for justice.”  
  
In the UK, Keshet International has licensed the linear and SVOD rights for this three-part docuseries to Reeva” by SA’s Sunday Independent, to Channel 4.  "My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered" by Oscar Pistorius can be streamed now on Channel 4’s streaming service, All 4.   KI has also sold the broadcast and streaming rights to SBS in Australia, where My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered by Oscar Pistorius will premiere from 17 April. Talks are ongoing with other potential broadcast partners.  

Produced by WB Productions in partnership with Cactus Tree Entertainment, Bloodrose Productions, and Australia’s Global City Group, "My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered" by Oscar Pistorius tells the true and intimate story of Reeva Steenkamp’s life and her murder at the hands of her then-boyfriend Oscar Pistorius - AKA the Blade Runner - on Valentine’s Day in 2013. Produced by David Taylor, My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered by Oscar Pistorius is directed by Warren Batchelor (204: Getting Away with Murder), while the script was written by SAFTA-winner Justin Strydom (Isidingo, High Rollers).   The title by Oscar Pistorius is the latest addition to KI’s true crime slate of documentaries, which also include seven 20x60’ seasons of Woodcut Media’s World’s Most Evil Killers and Flicker Productions’ "Prison Girls: Life Inside."

  "My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered" by Oscar Pistorius also features an in-depth analysis of what happened that fateful night, presenting new evidence and theories not previously disclosed in court. In addition, viewers are also be confronted with the long-term impact of Reeva’s death on those who loved her most: including her parents, who they see prepare to meet Pistorius face-to-face for the first time since being convicted of her murder, as part of the necessary VOD process - an integral part of South Africa’s restorative justice program.

With the full endorsement of Barry and June Steenkamp, thedocuseries gives life to Reeva’s existence through intimate interviews with both her parents as well as close friends and family, showing that a beautiful, intelligent, and beloved woman was taken in the prime of her life.    Ten years later, Reeva's murder is still deeply embedded in the minds of millions across the globe, with the 10-year anniversary of her death and news of Oscar Pistorius’ parole hearings still generating international press headlines.  On 31 March 2023, Pistorius returned to South African courts to request early parole, having completed the required restorative justice victim offender dialogue (VOD) with Reeva’s father Barry Steenkamp - an emotional journey that was too much for her mother June to endure in person, as charted in the 3-part docuseries My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered by Oscar Pistorius.  Pistorius’s request was denied. To this day, Pistorius (AKA the Bladerunner) maintains he mistook his girlfriend Reeva for an intruder on Valentine’s Day 2013 when he shot her four times. Without an admission of guilt, Barry and June Steenkamp continue to strongly oppose Pistorius’ early release.  
  
“After all these years we are still waiting for him to admit he did it in anger," Barry Steenkamp said last month, when speaking to the Daily Mail on the 10th-anniversary of Reeva’s death said. "That is all we wanted.  If he told me the truth, he would have been a free man by now and I would have let the law take its course over his parole.  But I was wasting my time. He is a murderer. He should remain in jail.”