{"id":266160,"date":"2019-01-25T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1008561"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T22:29:00","slug":"michael-jackson-documentary-leaving-neverland-draws-shock-at-sundance-film-festival-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/michael-jackson-documentary-leaving-neverland-draws-shock-at-sundance-film-festival-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Documentary Leaving Neverland Draws Shock at Sundance Film Festival Screening"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Michael<\/p>\n

Justin Sullivan\/Pool\/Wireimage<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A new documentary about past allegations of child sexual abuse made against the late\u00a0Michael Jackson<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0drew emotional reactions after it premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on Friday.<\/p>\n

Leaving Neverland<\/em>, which the King of Pop’s estate has denounced,\u00a0focuses on\u00a0accusations by\u00a0two men, choreographer\u00a0Wade Robson<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0computer programmer\u00a0James Safechuck<\/strong>, and was directed by\u00a0Dan Reed<\/strong>. The\u00a0three\u00a0took part in a Q&A after\u00a0the screening of the four-hour film at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, UT and received a standing ovation from the packed crowd, Deadline<\/a><\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Daily Beast<\/a>‘s Kevin Fallon<\/strong>\u00a0tweeted, “On a 10-min break halfway through Sundance’s 4-hour Michael Jackson child sex abuse documentary. Whatever you thought you knew or were aware of, the content of this is more disturbing than you could imagine.\u00a0And again, we’re only halfway through.”<\/p>\n

“It’s halftime at the four-hour Michael Jackson doc and I’m already gonna need 400 showers to ever feel clean again. #Sundance,” IndieWire film critic David Erlich<\/strong> tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/em>‘ Amy Kaufman<\/strong> said there was an\u00a0“incredibly emotional reaction from the audience.”<\/p>\n

“One audience member says he was molested as a child and that Robson and Safechuck ‘are going to do a lot more f–king good in the world than Michael f–king Jackson,'” she tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Healthcare professionals\u00a0were present in the theater lobby to help any audience members upset by the film’s content.\u00a0Two pro-Jackson protesters were spotted outside. A\u00a0few police officers were stationed outside the theater, tweeted\u00a0Variety<\/a><\/em>‘s Matt Donnelly<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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In recent years, Robson and Safechuck filed lawsuits against Jackson’s estate\u00a0after the singer’s\u00a02009 death, claiming sexual misconduct by him. Their cases were<\/a> dismissed<\/a>. In a 2005 criminal trial, Jackson was acquitted of charges of molesting a different boy, at his Neverland ranch.<\/p>\n

“This is yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael Jackson,” Jackson’s estate had said about\u00a0Leaving Neverland<\/em> in a statement<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month. “Wade Robson\u00a0and\u00a0James Safechuck\u00a0have both testified under oath that Michael never did anything inappropriate toward them. Safechuck and Robson, the latter a self-proclaimed ‘master of deception’, \u00a0filed lawsuits against Michael’s Estate, asking for millions of dollars. Both lawsuits were dismissed.”<\/p>\n

“I’m here to stand up for him,”\u00a0one of the\u00a0Sundance demonstrators, Canadian fan Brenda Jenkyns<\/strong>, told Variety<\/a><\/em>. “It’s important that people look at the facts, because the truth isn’t black and white.”<\/p>\n

Jackson’s nephew Taj Jackson<\/strong> also came to his uncle’s defense on Friday, tweeting<\/a>, “After years of coaching and studying for these roles, I’m sure Wade (self proclaimed “Master of Deception”) and Jimmy both gave Oscar winning performances today. Media, please do a 10 minute google search before you condemn an innocent man who is no longer here to defend himself.”<\/p>\n

Taj\u00a0has set up a GoFundMe page<\/a> to raise money to produce another documentary that will “conclusively destroy decades of salacious myths which have been told and sold about Michael Jackson ad nauseam.” As of Friday afternoon, more than $26,000 has been raised, with a goal of reaching $777,000.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Robson had testified at Jackson’s 2005 trial in the singer’s defense. He stated in his complaint that he didn’t think he’d been sexually abused until he suffered two nervous breakdowns and went to psychotherapy as an adult, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

“I don’t feel that like there is anything I need to say to them except that I understand that it is really hard or them to believe,” Robson at the Sundance Q&A said about Jackson’s fans who don’t believe him, according to Deadline. “Even though it happened to me, I still couldn’t believe it and I couldn’t believe that what Michael did was a bad thing, so I understand.”<\/p>\n

Safechuck told the audience\u00a0that “there was no money ever offered” for his and Robson’s participation in the film, adding that he wanted to shine a light” on sexual abuse of children and what can be done to stop it.<\/p>\n

Leaving Neverland<\/em>\u00a0will premiere on HBO and the UK’s Channel 4\u00a0this spring.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Sullivan\/Pool\/Wireimage A new documentary about past allegations of child sexual abuse made against the late\u00a0Michael Jackson\u00a0drew emotional reactions after it premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on Friday. Leaving Neverland, which the King of Pop’s estate has denounced,\u00a0focuses on\u00a0accusations by\u00a0two men, choreographer\u00a0Wade Robson\u00a0and\u00a0computer programmer\u00a0James Safechuck, and was directed by\u00a0Dan Reed. The\u00a0three\u00a0took part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-266160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 22:27:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}