Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story Documentary

Great documentary film news is in the works! Funny how it's all coming together after all these years. In the meantime, enjoy these clues. They may not be what they appear at first glance. And Frances Glessner Lee was smarter that pretty much everybody. 

 

Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death - Missing Nutshell

I recently took this photo of "Sitting Room and Woodshed" -- the Nutshell that was missing but also hiding in plain sight for decade at the Bethlehem Heritage Center in NH. I love it so much because in this light, it's so hard to tell it's a miniature. And I love how Frances Glessner Lee just keeps on keeping us guessing. 

For those of you who are wondering, we are still working on Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story. I love how this film is coming together.  

New Documentary in the realm of dollhouse figures

When I'm not making documentary films on dollhouse crimes scenes, I'm making documentary films about a different kind of sculpted figure and yes some of them are even creepy. 

A little trivia, I was lucky enough to work with Matt Ehling (from Of Dolls & Murder and Murder In a Nutshell) on this documentary for Twin Cities PBS. 

Watch for free! 

Frances Glessner Lee in the Boston Globe

If you haven't yet, read this great article about the great Frances Glessner Lee! THere's a mention Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story. 

And yes we will have a preview/fine cut screening at The Rocks in October 2024. 

Watch preview here! 

The Story of the Not-so-Missing Nutshell

We are deep in the throes of editing Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Documentary -- getting ready for the screening in October 2024. 

Above is a still from the section about the missing Nutshell. When we were working on Of Dolls & Murder, Jerry D (if you don't know who Jerry D is, watch the movie) told me about the destroyed Nutshell and the missing one. I figured that as a documentary filmmaker it was up to me to try to find it. 

It eventually led me to a Nutshell I had never seen before. Not in archival photos and not in person. It was in an issue of Popular Mechanics magazine from the 1950s. It was an amazing find. At least that is how it felt. But I still had no idea what happened to the missing Nutshell.  Until later on when I spotted it in a photo on a website for the Bethlehem Heritage Center in NH. (Near Frances' former estate at the Rocks)

Turns out the Nutshell wasn't missing at all. No one thought to ask anyone at the Rocks. So there it sat, overlooked for decades. 

I was the first person to tell Clare Brown (She works at both The Rocks and the Heritage Center) that the Nutshell hiding in plain sight at the Bethlehem Heritage Center was considered missing. That was news to her. All she knew was that she found it in "the old tool barn" at the Rocks and literally had no idea what it was or much about Frances Glessner Lee at the time. (Side note: Clare's grandfather worked for Frances.)

This Nutshell wound up getting cleaned up and carefully sent to London for a Welcome Trust exhibit before it safely making it home. 

Interesting lesson:  Things that are consider missing, maybe never were. We just never asked the right people. 

Side lesson: Don't assume others that came before you (even detectives) did their homework. 

 

Oct 2024: Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story documentary screening

We are still hammering out the details but we've set a date, Oct 19, 2024. for a screening of Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story documentary film. We are so excited to finally share this documentary with you! 

Editing Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story documentary

We spent a very productive session this past week working on the fine cut of Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story documentary. I love how this is coming together. 

One the left side of the monitor is the interior of the Glessner House Museum and on the right is a photo of Frances Glessner (R) with her dog and Violetta Scharff (L), Frances' paid companion. 

Someone recently asked me if the Glessner House was haunted. We filmed there twice and spent a day researching their files, so I had plenty of opportunity to be scared but nothing scary happened. The energy in the museum seemed light. 

However, many people do say it is haunted. What about you? Have you been there? Did you experience anything paranormal? 

While filming Of Dolls & Murder we did experience quite a few unexplained events, like camera and car batteries dying when they were fully charged/new. Strange. I've also had my computer battery drain on another filming project at a Polish museum.