8 h 5 min, 8 oct. 2021 ans - MINAMATA Kevin Eugene Smith, son of famed photojournalist, discusses MGM’s burying of Minamata

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FROM World Socialist Web Site:

Kevin Eugene Smith, son of famed photojournalist, discusses MGM’s burying of Minamata

“It’s absolutely shameful that MGM has acquired the rights to this very important film but not released it”

by Richard Phillips

This is the third in a series of discussions on Minamata, a new movie by Andrew Levitas, in addition to our original review. The film, featuring Johnny Depp, focuses on the industrial poisoning of Japanese fishing communities by the Chisso Corporation in Minamata and the courageous work by acclaimed photo-essayist W. Eugene Smith (Depp) and his wife Aileen Mioko Smith to expose this crime to global audiences during the early 1970s. This work is memorialised in their book Minamata: A Warning to the World.

The first of these discussions was with photographer Stephen Dupont, a winner of the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography in 2007; the second with acclaimed Australian documentary photographer Jack Picone. The following interview is with Kevin Eugene Smith, a lawyer, former television producer and journalist, and the manager of the photographic estate of his father, W. Eugene Smith.

While Minamata has been successfully released in several countries—New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Ireland, the UK, Japan, France and, later this month, Italy—MGM, which purchased the rights to distribute the film in North America, has not released it in the US. The company, which is being taken over by Amazon, has refused to give any date when it will be screened in North American cinemas.

In July, director Levitas revealed that he had been told by MGM’s acquisitions head Sam Wollman that the company was “burying” Minamata over concerns that “the personal issues of Johnny Depp,” could reflect negatively on MGM. The company’s arrogant and censorious actions constitute an outrageous attack on all those involved in the film’s production, including Aileen Mioko Smith, who was co-author of the book on which it was based, as well as the victims and families of those poisoned by Chisso.

Kevin Eugene Smith, who lives in Pasadena, California, spoke to the WSWS by phone last week. This is an edited version of the conversation.

Richard Phillips: What brings us together is our shared concern about MGM’s refusal to announce a date for the release of Minamata in North America, let alone provide any reason for this unprecedented delay. Why do you think the studio is doing this?

Kevin Eugene Smith: As you know, I’ve been quite active on Twitter and Facebook expressing my feelings about the non-release of the film. These are in line with the feelings of director Andrew Levitas and the Johnny Depp team.

It’s absolutely shameful that MGM has acquired the rights to this very important film, but has not released it. This is not just because it is about my dad, who was a legendary and heroic photojournalist, but because it is a very serious story about the victims of corporate greed, environmental poisoning.

MGM acquired distribution rights in good faith. They scheduled an initial North American release date of February 5, 2021, and then, because of COVID, they postponed it. That was quite justifiable—a lot of movie theatres here in the US were closed—but inexplicably they’ve now released a slate of films that were made after Minamata.

All these movies have been heavily promoted on social media, but there’s nothing about Minamata. Director Levitas issued his public and very strongly worded rebuke of MGM back in July, accusing them of “burying” the film and attributing it to their take on Johnny Depp’s personal situation.

What I’m seeking now is actual honesty from MGM. They’ve been mum on the subject and that’s what upsetting me the most. They issued a kind of corporate, one- or two-sentence response to Levitas, saying that the film is handled by one of their subsidiaries and that it’s in the pipeline or some garbage like that. This was a non-answer.

We deserve answers and so does the viewing public, that’s evident in the discussions on social media and in your interview with Stephen Dupont, which I’ve repeatedly republished on Facebook and Twitter.

Dupont’s statement encapsulates my thoughts completely. This is not about Johnny Depp—who cares what his personal problems are! The film was licensed to Depp’s company by Aileen Mioko Smith, a very serious individual and my dad’s co-creator of the Minamata project. Aileen licensed it because she was determined to get the story out about the Minamata victims and for those still alive and suffering to this day who have not yet received full reparations from the Chisso Corporation. This movie is their story and Aileen licensed the film in good faith.

I don’t know Mr. Depp personally, but he agreed to star in the film, for which I’m truly grateful. I know nothing about his personal problems, but as Stephen Dupont said, we don’t know what went on in the marriage. It’s between two people. He accuses her and she accuses him, but there are no criminal charges.

People seem to forget that the lawsuits have been brought by Depp to clear his name. Nobody is prosecuting him, there aren’t ten women accusing him. In fact, an ex-wife and other women in his life have come out and defended him.

[Long Article continued via the links below]

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