Dominick Dunne, one of the America’s most celebrated journalists and writers covering Hollywood society, died August 26th 2009. Made a year before his death, joiningthedocs.tv presents a portrait of a man who gave a piercing outsider’s view of insular lives and tragically compromised court cases because he was trusted by those on the inside.

Set against the contrasting backdrops of Manhattan and Los Angeles, as well as at Dunne’s peaceful Connecticut retreat, Dominick Dunne: After the Party draws on the memories of big names in Dunne’s field, including Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, Tina Brown, Joan Didion and legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans (The Godfather, Chinatown). The film uncovers the truth of a life surrounded and ultimately changed by its relationship with celebrity.

The film examines Dunne’s life from childhood, and his early days of being an outsider on the inside - a theme that has informed his whole life. From his World War II service that made Dunne return an unlikely hero, to his rise and fall in Hollywood and then to his reincarnation as a writer in his fifties, After the Party explores the nature of reinvention, belief in oneself, and today’s continuing cult of celebrity.

While covering one-time star music producer Phil Spector’s murder trial in Los Angeles, Dunne returns to the scene of several famous crimes that he’s covered as Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine. The list includes the notorious trial of O.J. Simpson as well as the all too personal case of the man accused of the murder of Dunne’s own daughter in 1982.

Before his death, Dunne had the delight of seeing Spector fail to get away with murder as he feared he might in a town where washed up actresses feature low on the pecking order of justice. That he fell out with Vanity Fair’s editor Gradyon Carter before the trial had ended, meaning the he would never again write for the magazine that made his name ultimately meant nothing. He had already written his own legend and changed the way popular journalism was viewed forever.