A 2017 HuffPost article stated, "Brother's Keeper" (1992) and the "Paradise Lost trilogy" (1996–2011) helped pioneer the style of documentary filmmaking seen in Netflix's recent true crime sensation, Making a Murderer—a combination of artful cinematography, a stirring musical soundtrack, and a dramatic narrative structure as compelling as any scripted film.

Film critic Roger Ebert called it "an extraordinary documentary about what happened next, as a town banded together to stop what folks saw as a miscarriage of justice.

The trilogy raised doubts about the legitimacy of the teenagers' convictions and spurred a movement to release them from prison, where one of the men was awaiting a death sentence.

Berlinger and Sinofsky capture the group at a crossroads, as bassist Jason Newsted quits the band and frontman James Hetfield abruptly leaves to enter a rehabilitation facility due to alcohol abuse.

[14] Berlinger's film Crude (2009) focused on the lawsuit by Ecuadorean plaintiffs against Chevron Corporation, for its alleged responsibility for continuing sites of pollution in that country.

In 2017 Berlinger released Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial & Depiction, an examination of the Armenian genocide through both seated interviews with experts and behind-the-scenes footage of Terry George's historical drama The Promise (2016).

[16] In addition to his feature work, Berlinger has created or played pivotal roles as executive producer, director and/or producer of many acclaimed television series, such as the Emmy-winning 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America for History, the Emmy-nominated Oprah's Master Class for OWN, and the star-studded Iconoclasts for Sundance, which paired creative visionaries across multiple disciplines - such as Eddie Vedder and Laird Hamilton, Chuck D and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Charlize Theron and Jane Goodall - for tandem portraits and discussions about their lives, influences, and art.

Since 2019's Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Berlinger has spearheaded multiple hit documentary series for Netflix, including Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020), Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021), and Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (2023).

In collaboration with journalist Greg Milner, Berlinger wrote the book Metallica: This Monster Lives (2004), about his early career, accomplishments and challenges forging his path in the world of film.

[9] The court convicted the youths (known as the West Memphis Three) of murdering three eight-year-old boys as part of a "ritual killing,"[9] although no physical evidence linked the three young men to the crime.

[citation needed] Paradise Lost documents the 20-year ordeal of these three young men from arrest to conviction, through years of unsuccessful legal efforts, to a plea bargain that resulted in their release in the summer of 2012.

[22] After a 2010 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding newly produced DNA evidence,[23] attorneys for the West Memphis Three negotiated with prosecutors an Alford plea allowing them to assert their innocence while acknowledging enough evidence to convict them; the result, on August 19, 2011, was acceptance of the pleas by Judge David Laser, and his reduction of sentence of the three to time served, and their release with 10-year suspended sentences (after 18 years, 78 days in prison).