O.J.: Made in America

Ezra Edelman's 7.5-hour documentary essay on O.J. Simpson — treating the trial as a lens through which to examine race, celebrity, law enforcement, and American culture in the 20th century.

The documentary as historiography: O.J.: Made in America is not primarily about the murder trial — it uses Simpson's life and the trial as a structure through which to tell the history of Black Los Angeles, the LAPD, celebrity culture, and American racial politics. Pulitzer Prize winner (2017, Criticism category — the first documentary to win). The 7.5-hour runtime makes it more a prestige television series than a conventional documentary, expanding what the documentary form can do.