Margaret Brown, a filmmaker originally from Mobile, Alabama, takes a thrilling dive into the weird and wonderful world of true crime. Her recent work as founding producer for the new, intense four-part docuseries The Yogurt Shop Murders. The series premiere on August 3 on HBO, and streaming on Max. It deals with the heartbreaking murders of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas that rocked the city in 1991. Brown has ambitiously expanded her vision for this delicate material through the artistic process. She is still very actively working to ensure that the victims and their families are still honored and remembered.
Brown, now living in Austin, took a careful approach to The Yogurt Shop Murders. He quickly found himself at odds with the conventions of the true crime genre. Her recent work producing the documentary Descendant illuminated the history of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States. This project brought to the fore her powerful “community first” philosophy. This dedication to community engagement colored her understanding as she approached the narrative surrounding the Yogurt Shop Murders.
The tragic story of the four teenage girls—Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers—has remained a poignant part of Austin’s history for over three decades. Brown herself had strong feelings about the case, understanding that it was a deeply personal issue. That emotional resonance compelled her to investigate further. She went beyond the bare details of the case to examine the insidious layers of grief and memory that come with losing a child like this.
When she began interviewing the families of the victims, her creative process changed direction in a surprising way. She said these conversations really shifted her mindset. Rather than reporting on what happened, she started focusing on how people deal with death. Brown’s deeply personal contemplations on memory and grief permeate the six-episode docuseries, making the impact of these themes palpable.
“You can’t make a show like this and not think about how your own memories about things are shifting,” – Margaret Brown
Brown has a strong commitment to authenticity. She used archival footage from Claire Huie’s unfinished documentary on Claire Huie’s Yogurt Shop Murders. She was exploring beauty and found an interesting aesthetic quality in this footage that had a real David Lynch feel to it. This inspiration served as the foundation for her evocative and atmospheric visual storytelling, combining a sense of nostalgia with a dark and brooding ambiance.
“It was like the same hair from Twin Peaks,” – Margaret Brown
As she spoke with the families, Brown faced deep and violent expressions of pain, longing, sorrow. One particular moment stood out to her: Sean Ayers, Amy’s older brother, expressed deep concern about losing his memories of his sister.
“I felt it so deeply, their pain,” – Margaret Brown
This shocking epiphany heightened Brown’s commitment to authentically portray the lives of those who were impacted.
“Sean was so worried about his memory of his sister fading. I remember that made such an impact,” – Margaret Brown.
As she wrapped up, she spoke about memory and how it can be a comfort but a snare.
“I always am interested in complexity, how something can be positive in one way, and another way, it can have a dark edge. Memory is a perfect example. It can be used as a trap and also a salve,” – Margaret Brown.
As Brown pulled the threads of her narrative choices together, she knew that her storytelling had to connect on a human level.
“I knew I couldn’t just make this stylized, slick thing … I got more interested in how people deal with loss,” – Margaret Brown.
She had noted that this story had a particularly dark bent to it. She knew it was important to find strands of redemption woven through it. It was this very perspective that helped her reach people who are going through the same trauma and suffering of grief and loss.
As The Yogurt Shop Murders reminds us, this trauma has often been racialized. It’s a mirror to how our society is able (or not) to deal with tragedy.
“For some people, it’s like: ‘Can I figure it out?’ But I think, for women, there’s something more primal about it,” – Margaret Brown.
Whether through her documentary work or her societal framework, Brown strives to create spaces of empathy and understanding through the weight of memory and loss. Her commitment to the families in this case is evident. It crafts an impactful story arc that memorializes their struggle and reaffirms their strength.
As audiences get ready for the docuseries to premiere, they can look forward to a journey that goes beyond ordinary true crime narrative. Brown’s nuanced approach invites audiences to reflect on their own perceptions of grief and memory while engaging with a story that resonates deeply within the Austin community and beyond.