Canadian doc about Weinstein, #MeToo to play at Hot Docs
The Reckoning sets out to ‘immortalize a debate and a time in history’
VICTORIA AHEARN
Just six months after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke and triggered a flood of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct allegations as well as the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, a Canadian documentary examining the saga is set to make its debut. The Reckoning: Hollywood’s
Worst Kept Secret, directed by Montreal-born doc-maker Barry Avrich and produced by Melissa Hood of Toronto, will screen April 28 and May 5 as part of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
“The purpose of the film was to immortalize a debate and a time in history, an era, in the face of social media that is, I think in a lot of ways, undermining a lot of the accusations,” said Avrich, whose other projects include the 2011documentary Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project.
“Because the cycle happens so quickly that you don’t have enough time to debate, the public is getting bored, so how do you keep the debate going? That was the purpose for the film: to immortalize this debate and the conversation, effect change.”
Billed as “a definitive film about the abuse of power in a complicit culture,” the doc has interviews with several actresses who’ve come forward with allegations against Weinstein, filmmaker James Toback and others.
Those actresses include Katherine Kendall and Melissa Sagemiller.
It also has interviews with journalists, agents, psychologists, former Miramax employees and lawyers as it looks at the debates surrounding such allegations, the impact of these cases and the systemic and cul- tural issues leading to harassment.
Also among the interviewees is Dylan Farrow, filmmaker Woody Allen’s adopted daughter, who alleges he molested her in an attic in 1992 when she was 7.
Allen has long denied the allegations and was investigated but not charged.
Hood said Farrow’s story “highlights some of the contradictions and the complexities” of the Time’s Up movement when it comes to supporting certain alleged victims and not others, or separating the art from the artist.
Also featured in the doc is Toronto lawyer Marie Henein, who represented former CBC radio star Jian Ghomeshi in a high-profile sexual assault case. Ghomeshi was found not guilty.
Henein is now representing a Toronto actress suing Weinstein for sexual assault. The allegations have not been tested in court.
“Certainly Marie Henein, coming off the Ghomeshi case, is a complex person and a complex voice in this film, but we wanted it because she’s seen both sides of it,” Avrich said.
The filmmakers said they wanted to feature a wide range of voices to reflect the generational divide over the issues explored.
They did not ask Weinstein or Toback for interviews. Avrich said he figured Weinstein wouldn’t agree to it and Toback has “said it all in how he’s responded and reacted to all of this. I really didn’t want to hear any more from him.”
Weinstein has previously de- nied through a spokesperson any allegations of non-consensual contact.
Toback has vehemently denied the allegations.
“I’ve always been really struck by how many women it takes before people will listen and believe a woman,” Hood said.
“Ever since the Jian Ghomeshi thing, I’ve really wanted to look at the question of why women are not being believed, and why women are being discredited and dismissed. So I felt that this film really gave us an opportunity to look at that.”