The director of the Lifetime documentary series The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson is making it clear that it’s Nicole’s story—not O.J. Simpson’s—that is finally going to be heard.

Moore’s extensive documentary comes about two weeks before the 30th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Goldman, 25, in Brentwood, California. O.J. Simpson was charged in the June 12, 1994, murders and was found not guilty of both crimes in what became to be known as “the trial of the century” in 1995. Simpson, however, was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil case.

A two-part documentary from filmmaker Melissa G. Moore, The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson is premiering on June 1 on Lifetime with two episodes and concludes with two episodes on June 2. O.J. Simpson, of course, died of cancer on April 11 at the age 76.

Moore didn’t take the responsibility of telling Nicole Brown Simpson’s story lightly. It involved, naturally, a thorough amount of research and collection of footage of Brown Simpson, as well as interviews with several close friends and family members of the murder victim including her sisters Denise, Dominique and Tanya.

“I’ve wanted to take on Nicole’s story for about 10 years now,” Moore told me in a recent Zoom conversation. “This has been a decade-long project for me. I started talking to the sisters 10 years ago.”

Moore said she was in high school when Brown Simpson and Goldman were murdered in 1994 but her focus at the time was on her own harrowing family life.

“I was having my own trial of the century,” Moore recalled. “My father was incarcerated for serial murder. I grew up with violence and domestic violence and I understand the inner workings of what that’s like to live through so I could relate to Nicole’s story.”

As Moore got older, she said she wondered why she didn’t hear more about Nicole Brown Simpson as the focus always appeared to be on O.J. Simpson, the trial and “the way that true crime became a whole genre out of the case but nothing really about the woman at the heart of it.”

“That’s what my goal was,” Moore added. “My North star was bringing Nicole to the forefront and telling her story.”

Perhaps Moore’s strangest thought—which is a telling sign about how lopsided the coverage of the murder was at the time—came when she embarked on making the documentary.

“I realized that if I closed my eyes I could hear O.J.’s voice but I didn’t even know what Nicole’s voice sounded like.”

Not only does Moore give the opportunity for the viewers to hear Brown Simpson’s voice, they can see her in home movie footage that is being shown for the first time. Also seen in the documentary are O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson’s children, Sydney and Justin.

Moore Said It Was Her Top Priority To Keep Her Promise To The Brown Sisters

Not surprisingly, the coverage of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s murders ran the gamut, from legitimate news services to outwardly exploitative ones.

As such, Melissa G. Moore knew that she would need to gain the trust of Brown Simpson’s sisters Denise, Dominique and Tanya if the story were to be told properly.

“It required a tremendous amount of trust and everybody wanted their story back in ’95,” Moore said. “Along the way, they had the opportunity to tell their stories but every time producers came to them and said, ‘I want to tell Nicole’s story,’ it would then become an O.J. story.”

Not surprisingly, when Moore approached the Brown sisters, she recalled hearing from them, “We’ve been told that before but it never works out.”

“So, then I said to them that I wanted Nicole’s name to be in the title of the documentary and I kept my promise,” Moore recalled. “It’s The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson. I was very proud that I was able to keep that title with the network because they had the same view that I did. I had a great partnership with the network and stayed true to my word to the sisters that this is about Nicole.”

Moore’s Documentary Delves Into Brown Simpson’s Life Before Her Murder

While most coverage of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s deaths has skewed toward O.J. Simpson’s double-murder trial, Melissa G. Moore wanted to focus also on the domestic violence Nicole Brown Simpson suffered long before the fateful night of June 12, 1994.

After watching ESPN’s expansive 30 for 30 documentary—the 7 hour and 47-minute O.J.: Made in America—Moore realized how woefully under-represented Brown Simpson was in what has now been divided up into episodes.

“When I watched the 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN, I thought, ‘Wow, what an incredible documentary about O.J. Simpson,’” Moore recalled in a sarcastic tone. “There was an episode focused on the domestic violence with Nicole but you don’t know Nicole’s genesis—the starting point of her relationship with O.J. I felt that was important to the murder trial, the genesis of their love story. That’s never really been explored.”

As such, Moore’s documentary goes back to the beginning of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown’s relationship before it chronicles the couple’s marriage in 1985 and divorce in 2002—and the horrific tragedy that follows.

“It’s actually quite fascinating. The month he moved into [his home] on Rockingham Avenue in May of 1977, young 18-year-old Nicole—who just graduated from high school—comes to L.A.,” Moore explained. “Then there’s this convergence in their timeline where their worlds meet and forever changed our world, eventually as we came to understand about domestic violence years later.”

Family And Friends Share Troubling Stories In The Brown Simpson Documentary

The domestic violence Nicole Brown Simpson endured is heavily chronicled in The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, which, as the documentary points out, started as early as the first time Brown Simpson and O.J. Simpson went out on their first date.

It’s something that’s discussed at length by friends and family members in the documentary, which includes recollections by Brown Simpson’s male friends.

“Nicole was friends with a lot of men and they were all very protective of her,” Moore said. “Even when I would do interviews with them they were scared of letting Nicole down. Sometimes when I was interviewing, like Ron Hardy, for example, he was afraid of not remembering enough to bring her back to life.”

Moore said she was impressed with every single friend and their recollections for the documentary and the wide variety of stories they were able to contribute—even if some of their memories haunted them.

“Everybody wanted to do justice for Nicole,” Moore said. “Every single friend had a different memory of her. One thing I found in common with the male interview subjects is that they all felt a sense of guilt that they didn’t do enough to protect her.”

The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson premieres at 8 p.m. ET/CT on Saturday, June 1, and continues Sunday, June 2 on Lifetime. Both parts of the documentary will be available to stream on Lifetime June 2 and 3.