Leaving Neverland

Due to upsetting scenes in the film, health care professionals were on hand for audience members.

Holding signs that read "Seek Truth" and "Innocent," about 20-25 protestors converged outside Park City's Egyptian Theatre for the Sundance premiere of the Michael Jackson molestation doc Leaving Neverland. The film rode into the indie film festival amid a wave of controversy given the on-camera claims made by two men — Wade Robson and James Safechuck — who say they were sexually abused by the late pop star when they were children.



Only two elderly female protesters were on hand before the four-hour film started, but by the intermission, another 20 had arrived, some traveling from as far as Canada to show their support for Jackson and his legacy. Aaron Madsen came for the day from Salt Lake City and said that he and his fellow protestors were there peacefully and weren't looking for trouble despite the sizable police presence.

When asked what he would say to the protestors and other supporters of Jackson, Robson told the audience: "I don't feel like I need to say anything to them," which received thunderous applause. He added: "I understand he's hard to hate."



Sources say that the Michael Jackson estate didn't try to stop the screening or threaten any legal action before the film made its world premiere on Friday.



Attendees were required to open their coats and bags and have their bodies checked by a metal-detecting wand, while police dogs remained in the venue throughout the screening.

It may not be much of a secret that Michael Jackson acted inappropriately with a number of young boys, but there’s no way to prepare yourself for the sickening forensic details presented in Dan Reed’s four-hour exposé. It’s one thing to be vaguely aware of the various allegations that were made against the King of Pop; the asterisks that will always be next to the late mega-star’s name. It’s quite another to hear the horrifyingly lucid testimony that stretches across the entire duration of “Leaving Neverland,” as two of Jackson’s most repeat victims bravely lay bare how a universal icon seduced them away from their realities, splintered their families beyond all recognition, and leveraged their love for him into a disturbing litany of sexual acts.

The eloquent and straightforward “Leaving Neverland” was made for no other reason than to give shape to a nebulous cloud of rumors, many of which were floated in public before they were silenced behind settlements, and none of which a jury was able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. In the wake of Reed’s film and the shattering interview footage that it exists to share with us, there’s no longer a reasonable doubt. There’s no longer any doubt at all. Not only do the documentary’s two main subjects perfectly corroborate their separate accounts in all of the most tragic of ways, but they do so with a degree of vulnerability that denies any room for skepticism.

The estate of the Thriller singer, who was acquitted in 2005 of seven counts of child molestation and two counts of giving a drug to a 13-year-old boy, have torched Neverland as “just another rehash of dated and discredited allegations.”



In response to that, Safechuck told the Theatre that “there was no money ever offered” for his and Robson’s extensive participation in the film. “This was really just trying to tell the story,” he asserted, adding he wanted to shine a light” on sexual abuse of children and what can be done to stop it.