In retelling true crimes stories, the “human” element is typically ignored. We’re often so caught up in the grizzly details and the scandal—in the shock and whodunnit conspiracy theories—that the people most affected by the crime become props rather than real people.

Joe Lee’s emotional, touching documentary, The Witmans, takes the opposite approach. This isn’t a true-crime expose of a shocking murder case. Rather, it’s a story focusing on the people left in the wake of a terrible tragedy. In what seems too horrible to imagine, Ron and Sue Witman’s oldest son was accused and convicted of murdering his brother.

If the story sounds familiar, both Ron and Sue were featured on the incredibly popular Serial podcast late last year. Their son’s case was handled by Christina Gutierrez, the lawyer who also represented Adnan Syed in the now-famous trial for the murder of Hae Min Lee. But, unlike Serial, this isn’t an intense dissection of a complicated murder case (though, admittedly, from an investigative standpoint this case too may have more than meets the eye). Director Joe Lee is after a more emotive journey—one that realistically looks at life lived in the aftermath. It’s not a film about crime or the American justice system—it’s a sobering portrait of grief. And, that in and of itself, is heart-wrenching.

Lee grew up with this story. He was just eight years old when the the events took place in a neighboring town in 1998. His father, a courthouse reporter for the local newspaper, covered the story. He was still captivated by the case many years later but for different reasons. As he relates via e-mail, “People would tell Sue, a mother who essentially lost both of her children in one day, to move on with life, to get over it, that life goes on. That really got to me. So I wanted to tell the story of the Witmans mainly because their story, which is an important one, usually gets overlooked by people who are only familiar with the story of the murder. At this point, the crime happened 16 years ago, so the crime itself is old news, but Ron and Sue are still dealing with the after effects every single day.”

Due to the Serial connection, Lee’s film has already garnered a lot of attention—attention he’s hoping he can use to help parlay the film into a feature. Considering the devastating subject matter, while we can’t necessarily say we’d be looking forward to experiencing this sort of story for 90 minutes, we can’t deny it would be a harrowing watch.

In the meantime, be sure to keep up with this story via The Witman Project.