Director Doug Liman says his self-financed Brett Kavanaugh documentary Justice, which premiered Friday night at Sundance, may be far from finished as new tips started pouring in within a half hour of Thursday’s announcement of the top-secret project.
“I thought the movie was done… I thought I was off the hook. I’m in Sundance, I thought I could sell the movie,” Liman said ruefully at a Q&A following the world premiere of his first documentary, which re-examines the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made during his confirmation hearing in 2018. The film explores leads the FBI appeared to have ignored in an investigation after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a party in 1982 when they were both high school students in Maryland.
The judiciary is paying close attention to allegations by another woman, Deborah Ramirez, who also came forward in the middle of the hearings to say that in 1983 a drunk Kavanaugh, then a Yale University freshman, approached her at a meeting had been exposed by several teenagers on campus.
“Justice” Story Syndicate
CAA handles sales for what’s instantly the hottest acquisition title at Sundance’s first in-person since 2020. Justice premiered to a packed theater to an enthusiastic response. The documentary was kept under wraps and only announced the day before as part of the lineup at the opening press conference.
Perhaps the film’s most explosive revelation is the FBI’s failure to follow up on a lead from Max Stier, a fellow Yale student, when Ramirez and Kavanaugh were visiting the school about another student. The film includes a taped testimony from Stier, one of 4,500 tips to an FBI hotline set up after Ramirez and Blasey Ford came forward.
Liman said the filmmakers have not yet received any backlash, but he feels the filmmakers and those interviewed in the film are at risk of retaliation while justice is being served, hence the need for extreme secrecy, which relates to questioning everyone Stakeholders extended film to sign NDAs.
“The machinery being used against anyone who spoke up… we knew the machinery would be turned against us,” Liman said. “The film would not have been shown at Sundance, there would have been a restraining order” if it had been leaked beforehand.
Producer Amy Herdy, also at Q&A, has been investigating other prominent figures accused of sexual misconduct, including Woody Allen in the documentary series Allen v. Farrow and music industry mogul Russell Simmons in the 2020 documentary On the Record. Oscar winner Dan Cogan and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus executive produced the film, along with Liman. Cogan and Garbus’ production company Story Syndicate produced the film.
Herdy said she hopes the film will “spark outrage and a subpoena investigation.”
Blasey Ford appears briefly in the first few minutes of the film. Excerpts from her dramatic testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee tell her story. Liman said he didn’t tape a new on-camera interview with Blasey Ford because “she did her part. She has done more than her part for this country. She’s done enough for 10 lives.”
In a statement released after the festival announced the documentary’s premiere, Liman said, “It shouldn’t be that difficult to have a candid and honest conversation about whether a Supreme Court justice assaulted numerous women as a young man has or not. Thanks to this amazing investigative team and the brave souls who have entrusted us with their stories, Justice picks up where the FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh fell short. The film examines our court processes and the institutions behind them, highlighting bureaucratic missteps and political seizures of power that continue to have an outsized impact on our nation to this day.”
President Trump named Kavanaugh to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy in July 2018. The Senate Judiciary Committee conducted Kavanaugh’s initial confirmation hearings September 4-7. On September 16, the Washington Post ran a bombastic report that Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982 when they were both teenagers in Bethesda, Maryland.
In an excerpt of testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray seen in the film, the G-Man admits that tips received about Kavanaugh were shared with the Trump White House. The film ends with Vice President Mike Pence announcing the 50-48 Senate vote confirming Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
The document notes that Kavanaugh declined to comment to the filmmakers. He has previously categorically denied all allegations.
Among Kavanaugh’s most momentous decisions since joining the court was his vote last year, Roe v. Wade to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. He was joined by other Conservatives in the 6-3 decision, including Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed in court in 2020.