Jewel thief steals the scene

SINGAPORE - In her 80s, she looks like a kindly and stylish grandmother but Doris Payne is no docile homebody. The American has stolen about US$2 million (S$2.5 million) worth of jewellery in crimes spanning five decades. There is even a movie about her in development with Hollywood star Halle Berry attached to the project.

When Matthew Pond, 42, first read about her in the newspaper in 2010, he was intrigued. It led to weekly visits to an Orange County jail where she was serving time for theft.

Eventually, he and fellow film-maker Kirk Marcolina, 43, made a movie tracing her journey from poor African-American woman to glamorous international criminal.

The Life & Crimes Of Doris Payne is part of the line-up of the second edition of the Endeavours Documentary Film Festival. It takes place at The Arts House from May 14 to 18.

The 10 films to be screened include Lotfy Nathan's 12 O'Clock Boys (2013), about a dirt bike gang; Benjamin Turner and Gabe Turner's The Class Of 92 (2013), featuring some of football club Manchester United's biggest names such as David Beckham and Ryan Giggs; and Kerry Candaele's Following The Ninth: In The Footsteps Of Beethoven's Final Symphony (2013).

Last year, the festival attracted more than 750 filmgoers.

For the Doris Payne movie, Pond tells Life!: "Kirk and I decided to make a film that was fun and entertaining. We wanted to tackle some serious issues - segregation, racism and crime - but we didn't want to hit people over the head with it. Because Doris, at her core, is a fun, lively, charismatic person, we wanted the film to reflect that."

Working with such a subject had its challenges.

On the one hand, the actress in Payne was happy with the attention. On the other hand, Pond notes: "Because she is a career criminal, she's naturally cautious and a little manipulative. She would share the information very sparingly."

Often, the film-makers would wonder if they were being taken for a ride.

Marcolina says: "Doris, at one moment, can be the charming grandmother and the next moment, you'll want to tear your hair out because she's so frustrating to interview.

"Sometimes, she'll give us information that we believed there was no way in the world could be real because it seemed so far-fetched."

But through the Freedom of Information Act, they got hold of her Federal Bureau of Investigation files and "much to our surprise", almost every story she told them was corroborated by the information in the files.

At the peak of her career in the 1970s, she would sashay into the stores of top-end jewellers such as Cartier in Monte Carlo, and through her confident play-acting and nimble sleight-of-hand, walk out with dazzling diamond rings.

Payne, a single mother with two children, is defiantly unrepentant in the movie and maintains that what she committed were victimless crimes.

As Marcolina, who is married, points out: "To be a career jewel thief, you have to do some mental gymnastics to be okay with what you're doing. That's how she rationalised it in her own mind and I think she truly believes that."

However, he adds: "We tried not to cast any judgment on what Doris was doing. We don't want to condone or condemn what she did but rather, just paint a portrait of this unique and original person who lived her life in a different way."

Still, they had to be careful not to fall under her spell. Pond, a bachelor, muses: "She's so much fun to be around and so charming. When she's in a good mood, she's so lovely that you almost let yourself go along for the ride and you realised you've drunk the Kool-Aid.

"But you have the objectivity in the editing to present both sides of the story to the audience for them to form their own decisions and make their own impressions."

Book it

ENDEAVOURS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Where: The Arts House When: May 14 to 18, from 7pm Admission: $15 a screening from www.bytes.sg or at The Arts House box office Info: www.endeavours docufilmfest.com

"We don't want to condone or condemn what she did, just paint a portrait of this unique person who lived her life in a different way."

This article was published on April 30 in The Straits Times.

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.