Josie Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum worked together on a podcast about an Alaskan manhunt and shooting, which is the basis of a new Hulu documentary, “Blood & Myth.” (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

The true crime genre is wildly popular at least partly because it’s pretty straightforward. There’s a violent, horrific crime and the audience hears the true story of what happened, grisly plot twists and all.

But longtime audio producers Josie Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum of Portland came upon a true crime story a few years ago that raised the question of what truth is and who decides. While working in Alaska they were introduced to the case of Teddy Kyle Smith, an Iñupiaq man arrested after refusing to answer questions about his mother’s death and then shooting two men. He claimed his violence was guided by the Iñukuns, mythical, sinister creatures of Inupiaq folklore.

Collaborating with another Inupiaq man — musician and storyteller James Dommek Jr. — Holtzman and Kestenbaum ventured into Alaskan villages to create a podcast called “Midnight Son.”  It was released as an Audible Original in 2019 and has become the basis for a new Hulu documentary film called “Blood & Myth,” which premieres Sept. 4.  Holtzman and Kestenbaum, who are married and alumni of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, serve as executive producers on the film.

“It’s a great story. There’s the manhunt, and it’s a mystery based in remote Alaska. But beyond that I think what really got us were the bigger issues – the culture clash, the Western justice system sort of colliding with Indigenous belief systems,” said Holtzman. “It’s not just about truth, but who gets to decide what’s true.”

The film’s producer, Jonas Bell Pasht, said he was captivated by “Midnight Son” but felt that there were unanswered questions that could be addressed in a film. He said the film ended up being a combination of true crime thriller, manhunt and ghost story. As in the podcast, Dommek is the narrator and part of the story. Viewers and listeners follow him as he searches for answers about the crime and about the bigger, cultural questions.

Pasht said that Holtzman and Kestenbaum were part of the “core creative brain trust” for the documentary and worked side by side with the filmmakers throughout the entire process.

“They were on every creative call, attended every network meeting, and were there on location when we filmed in Alaska,” said Pasht. “They both have a deep love for (Dommek), Alaska and the Inupiaq people and were emotionally invested in all aspects of the production.”

Teddy Kyle Smith and James Dommek Jr. in a scene from the Hulu documentary “Blood & Myth.” (Courtesy Disney)

Smith was an up-and-coming actor in Alaska and respected among his tribe. He had appeared in the Alaskan-made film “On the Ice,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. His case began in 2012 when Alaskan authorities wanted to interview him about the death of his mother, which seemed suspicious at the time. (Foul play was later ruled out.) When police tried to talk to Smith, he fired a gun and fled, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Police searched the wilderness for about two weeks when they discovered that Smith had turned up in the cabin of two hunters, and allegedly shot them. Smith was later convicted of two counts of attempted murder.

At his trial a couple years later, Smith claimed what he did had been guided by Iñukuns, sinister beings of myth, long feared by the Iñupiaq people. In court, the claims were discarded. But Dommek, who had grown up in rural Alaska north of the Arctic Circle, knew the existence of Iñukuns was accepted as fact in some communities and that there had been first-person accounts of encounters with them.

Hulu’s description of the film says that Dommek’s search for answers about the case, “takes him deep into the heart of uncharted Alaska, where myth and reality collide, and where he must confront his own demons to unravel the mystery behind the Iñukuns.”  The trailer for the film shows Dommek talking to Smith in jail.

Holtzman is a freelance podcast producer, while Kestenbaum is director of the Salt Institute, now part of the Maine College of Art and Design. The couple met about 17 years ago while both were enrolled at Salt. Together they run an audio production company called Future Projects.

They met Dommek, and learned about Smith’s case, while living in Alaska and working with a local public radio station on a year-long project about climate change. Dommek did some of the music for that project, called “Frontier of Change.”

At one point, Holtzman, Kestenbaum and Dommek were just sitting around and talking when Kestenbaum asked, “James, do you know of any good stories?” Dommek told them about Smith’s case and his odyssey in the wilderness. He said he’d like to maybe make a movie out of it one day. The couple both saw the potential for an audio series and began working on it, with Dommek.

James Dommek Jr. in the Hulu documentary “Blood & Myth.” (Courtesy Disney)

Kestenbaum said the trio were aided in their efforts to make “Midnight Son” by Alaska’s freedom of information laws, which are generous. The podcast makers had access to recordings of interviews and court proceedings throughout the case. They also have recordings of Smith shooting at people outside his mother’s house before fleeing. They lived in New York after their Alaska project ended, but traveled back to Alaska to make the audio series.

“We knew we had some pretty good material and access to characters. And with James being from that area and being a central character, we were pretty confident about what we might be able to do,” said Kestenbaum.

Holtzman said she and Kestenbaum were “pleasantly surprised” to find the makers of the Hulu documentary wanted them to be so involved in the film, instead of just doing their own version.

“Often, someone will get interested in your story and say ‘Thanks for idea.’ If you’re lucky, you might get to see the final cut,” said Holtzman. “But it wasn’t like that at all for us. We were involved in all the meetings and were involved, giving notes on the structure and story and rough cuts.”