collective bailiff raised when 2023 Sundance Film Festival Announcing a last-minute addition to the squad: justicea documentary Investigate allegations sexual misconduct against Supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh. The film is the first documentary directed by him Doug Lymanthe man behind swingers And Bourne identityand was produced by Amy Hurdy, a former journalist and principal researcher of documentaries Allen v. Farrow And On the record, just aroused more curiosity. Will the film contain new allegations against Kavanaugh that go beyond what appeared during and around the bombing hearing before Senate Judicial Committee? Or it may provide new evidence supporting the accounts of the women who have already come forward against Kavanaugh alleging a range of sexual misconduct, including Christine Blasey FordAnd Deborah Ramirez And Julie Swetnick?
justice It debuted on January 20 to a crowd of 295 at Sundance’s Park Avenue Theatre, including a few dozen members of the press. Lehman had his entire crew sign non-disclosure agreements, and he self-financed the project in order to keep it completely confidential.
The movie raises more questions than it answers.
The film opens with Lehman sitting on a couch across from Christine Blasey Ford, who asks him why he, a Hollywood director, wants to direct this film. Only the back of Ford’s head is shown, and she is never seen on camera again, retaining archival footage of her powerful testimony. In a post-screening Q&A, Lyman said he chose not to include new footage of Ford in order to spare her additional scrutiny and threats. Meanwhile, Swetnick is not mentioned.
Most of the film’s interest concerns Deborah Ramirez, who Tell The New YorkerRonan Farrow and Jane Mayer when he was a freshman Yale In 1983, Kavanaugh “unmasked at a drunken boarding party, shoved his penis in her face, and made her grope him without her consent because she pushed him away”. She reiterated these allegations during a sit-down interview justice. (Kavanaugh has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.)
While the FBI spoke with Ramirez as part of a one-week “limited scope” investigation into Trump nominee Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, they ultimately concluded that they found “no support for the allegations.” [of sexual misconduct]Admittedly, office agents failed to speak to a number of people who corroborated her account or had other stories of Kavanaugh’s behavior at Yale.
The largest reveal in justice It relates to Max Steer, a classmate of Kavanaugh at Yale University. to me the book The Education of Brett Kavanaughby The New York Times Reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, Steyr, who runs the Partnership for Public Service, a prominent nonprofit (and nonpartisan) organization in Washington, D.C., told senators and the FBI that he “saw Mr. Kavanaugh in his pants at a different drunken slumber party.” , where friends shoved his penis into the hands of a female student,” but the FBI did not follow up with him. justice Going one step further, it broadcasts an audio recording of Stier’s narration, which the filmmakers say was entrusted to them by an anonymous source. (Steer refused to speak to the filmmakers, as did Kavanaugh.)
“This is something I reported to my wife years ago,” Steer says, before going into detail about how he heard a “straightforward” story of Kavanaugh’s friends asking a heavily intoxicated young woman to “hold his cock” during a sleepover party. He also recalls on the audio recording an alleged episode he heard in which a drunken Kavanaugh attempted to insert his penis into the mouth of a young woman at a sleepover just as she was about to die on the floor from drinking.
Elsewhere in justiceSeveral of Ramirez’s Yale classmates expressed frustration with the FBI for failing to interview them, and even noted that Kavanaugh’s team had been calling their Yale classmates during the inquiry to try to steer them in his direction. A series of text messages are shown in the film that apparently show Kavanaugh’s classmates at Yale discussing how members of Kavanaugh’s circle contacted them about their recollections regarding Ramirez’s allegations. Because Kavanaugh was adamant that he did no such thing during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the film claims that he committed perjury.
more than anything else, justice It seems like a bright signal for future accusers and witnesses of Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct to come forward. The press was told that the 83-minute version shown at Sundance was not final, and Herdy and Liman told festival-goers during a post-show Q&A that they had received new advice since the documentary was announced on January 19, and that the film – and their investigation – It’s not over yet.