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How #MeToo informed a filmmaker's second documentary on Harvey Weinstein

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NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23:  Director Barry Avrich attends "Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World" Premiere during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at Cinepolis Chelsea on April 23, 2017 in New York City.  (Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Donna Ward/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival
Barry Avrich's second, and more damning, documentary on Weinstein will premiere at the 2018 Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.

“The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret" set to premiere at the Hot Docs Festival. Director Barry Avrich's first film about Weinstein was effectively buried.

Earlier this week, the New York Times and the New Yorker shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their coverage of Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment and abuse.

Now, a new documentary continues the conversation.

“The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret" premieres next week at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.

In the film, director Barry Avrich interviews actresses Katherine Kendall and Melissa Sagemiller — alleged victims of Weinstein’s predatory behavior — as well as former Miramax and Weinstein Co. employees.

Interestingly, this is not Avrich’s first film about Weinstein. Back in 2011, Avrich profiled the former Hollywood power player in a film called, “Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project.” Before starting that film, Avrich was tipped off by a former Miramax employee about the three phases of a working relationship with Weinstein:



Number one: he's going to be incredibly charming and try to buy you out and suggest that you should make another film and not about him. Of course, he did try that. And then the second phase will be that he will become very belligerent and threaten you. Then the third phase of the world of Harvey Weinstein would be that he would take a bat to your head.



The bat to my head in this particular case was the fact that he had IFC Films come to the Toronto Film Festival, look at my film, offer me a lot of money for the film, buy the film and bury it.

When Avrich spoke with The Frame's John Horn, they discussed the making of his first documentary and why he felt the need to make another.

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