Several Harvey Weinstein accusers open up about their experiences with the disgraced producer in the powerful new trailer for the upcoming documentary,The Reckoning: Hollywoods Worst Kept Secret. Barry Avrich directed the film, which is set to arrive on demand November 6th.
The clip opens with a montage of prominent actors and actresses thanking Weinstein while accepting Academy Awards before cutting to interviews with several Weinstein accusers. These women including Katherine Kendall, Melissa Sagemiller and Laura Sivan are candid about their encounters with Weinstein, as well as the Hollywood power structures that allowed him to prey on women for decades.
It was allowed to go on because he had so much power, Sivan says. If he was some schmuck in a mailroom, hed be in jail.
Avrich began making The Reckoning, distributed by Vertical Entertainment,after the Weinstein scandal broke in 2017, though hed already spent years working on another documentary about the show business mogul. In a statement, Avrich said that while making his first film, he heard vague whispers about Weinsteins sexual misbehavior, but nothing close to an outright accusation. Nevertheless, Avrich claimed that Weinstein tried to intimidate him and his interview subjects, and the filmmaker even alleged that Weinstein convinced IFC to purchase and bury his film.
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When the scandal broke in October 2017 and widened to include many other Hollywood players, I knew I had to make a film that examined the scandal in great detail and the abuse of power, Avrich said. Just days after the scandal, I received 178 interview requests; five of them from fake journalists, who I believe worked for Harvey. So it continues Given my history with Harvey and the recent allegations that have come to light in the industry, I felt it was necessary to give a voice to a movement that will be immortalized in film. I feel that it was necessary to explore this historical movement to provide a balanced view to the alleged victims and how it changed our culture forever.