Whatever It Takes
United States, United Kingdom, 2024: 92 minutes: Alberta Premieredescription
The extraordinary true-crime story of a middle-aged couple subjected to cyberstalking threats by the Fortune 500 company eBay.
In the summer of 2019, Ina and David Steiner started being harassed online and receiving bizarre deliveries to their suburban home, including a bloody pig mask and funeral wreath. As the harassment against the two e-commerce bloggers intensified, the police and FBI closed in on a Silicon Valley giant and some very unlikely suspects. Founded on the principle that "people are basically good,” WHATEVER IT TAKES tells the story of the legal case, the toxic work culture at eBay, and how members of the security team ended up in federal prison. This is a timely true crime caper about dysfunction, the disintegration of ethics, and a couple of unsuspecting journalists whose lives are changed forever.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
SXSW 204
Hamptons International Film Festival 2024
Denver Film Festival 2024
HotDocs 2024
DIRECTOR'S BIO
Jenny Carchman is a five-time Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker. Her previous directing and producing projects include the four-part HBO series SEX DIARIES, the Showtime productions GOSSIP, THE FOURTH ESTATE, THE FAMILY BUSINESS: TRUMP AND TAXES, and the award-winning series WE ARE WITNESSES for The New Yorker and The Marshall Project. She has also produced several documentaries and special projects for Martin Scorsese (PUBLIC SPEAKING, GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD). Carchman is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Director’s Guild of America, and served for five years as a board member of the Ghetto Film School which teaches filmmaking to high school students in underserved communities.
CJSW Curated Playlist
press for Whatever It Takes
"A harassed journalist’s nightmarish odyssey grows increasingly scary and strange in WHATEVER IT TAKES, a compelling true-crime documentary in which the audience is advised to know as little as possible before going in."- Screen International
"The most “Holy Shit” doc I’ve seen in years, the kind of thing that builds buzz ... because of the insane story that it unpacks that everyone needs to share."- RogerEbert.com
details
Crime / Documentary / Women Director
English92 minutes
credits
Director
Jenny Carchman
Executive Producers
Mandy Chang
Lizzie Fox
Casey Meurer
Nicole Stott
Jonathan Silberberg
Allyson Luchak
Jenny Carchman
Producers
Allyson Luchak
Ben Travers
Screenwriters
Seth Bomse
Jenny Carchman
Cinematographer
Thorsten Thielow
Music
Daniel Wohl