DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This two-part, four-hour documentary concludes tomorrow night, and both halves are tough to watch, yet important to witness. Director Dan Reed builds his narrative around two thirtysomething adults who claim to have been sexually abused, as young children, by Michael Jackson. The stories they tell – augmented by stories from their family members and spouses – gain emotional power and heft the more we hear them. And
Leaving Neverland is significant, and lingering in its impact, purely because it takes the time, on film, to listen to the alleged victims as they tell their stories. And whether you push away from the TV set believing them or not, isn’t that the whole message of the #MeToo movement: that people alleging abuse must be encouraged to tell their stories?
For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website. And
for another full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.