The world premiere of the film Rust was as uncomfortable as you'd expect

The film Rust had its world premiere at the Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot and killed on set.

Since then, the film's armorer, who was responsible for the gun, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence. Alec Baldwin was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, but a judge dismissed the case back in July, saying that prosecutors and police withheld evidence.

Nick Newman, managing editor for The Film Stage, attended the film's premiere. Today on Commotion, he tells guest host Ali Hassan about the experience of watching a movie that's become so intertwined with tragedy.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Ali: What a unique experience to be part of and such an incredibly loaded subject in the end, you know? Some people have questioned whether Rust should have been completed, and then after it was done, should it have been screened? And then once it screened, how the tragedy should be addressed there? So, I mean, who better to talk to you than you, Nick? You were in the room. Can you tell us about the screening that you went to at Camerimage Film Festival in Poland?

Nick: Yeah, I'd be glad to. Maybe it's worth contextualizing that Camerimage is a festival that for 30-plus years has celebrated cinematographers and their craft. It's one of the very few festivals that does as much, and it's a wonderful place to celebrate both movies and this dual artistic-technician craft. It's very under the radar. Cinematography isn't necessarily that sexy a thing to celebrate at larger festivals like Cannes or Venice or Berlin, but the thing about Camerimage is that it unfortunately gets the most English language coverage when something controversial happens. So last year, Adam Driver got into a bit of a verbal spat with a screening attendee. This year, the festival's director wrote an op-ed criticizing diversity initiatives which led to these headlines and places like Deadline and Variety, where Steve McQueen pulled out of appearing at the festival. Coralie Fargeat, who made The Substance, pulled the film entirely. What's odd is that prior to this, the biggest controversy of the year was Rust, and now the op-ed from the director has overshadowed it. It's almost a PR version of robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

But it makes sense on paper that they would be the festival to celebrate this, of all films. And during the screening, it was alleged that Hutchins had wanted Rust to screen there in the first place. At the screening they had the director, Joel Souza, who was also injured in the shooting incident. They had Bianca Cline, the DP who had replaced Hutchins. They also had Rachel Mason, a friend of Halyna Hutchins, who is currently making a documentary about her. But crucially, Alec Baldwin was not invited. And not only was he not invited, his name was not mentioned once in the many minutes spent on introductions and post-film discussions. So you think you've experienced an elephant in the room? It was very odd. I think it's also worth noting, before we get to your next question, that Hutchins's family have a very seemingly conflicted feeling about this. The sense I get is that they're disturbed by the initiative to sell the film and thus make a profit off of it. They were not present at the screening. Some headlines were saying that her mother was skipping the screening, but she's actually stranded in Ukraine and, having missed many film screenings for many reasons, I would consider that a pretty good one.

Ali: Your article in Vulture goes into great detail, very articulately, about the experience. I wonder if you can share that, about what it felt like to be in the room to watch this film?

Nick: Yeah, really bad vibes, I've got to say. We were queuing up outside in the multiplex, and there were photographers who were trying to capture the atmosphere of the masses entering the multiplex theatre. And, you get in. Sousa's talking to the festival director while a bunch of photographers are situated around them, and they're trying to carry on this conversation, which no human being could carry on normally, of course. People didn't want to talk to me about the piece. People usually don't want to talk to me, but you can really feel the energy when you're a reporter who is there to cover this tragic film. And then the festival directors gave their introduction, which I would describe as very polemicized, in the sense that they were front-loading this with, "There's been a lot of talk about the screening, but we think you'll find that we made the right decision." And they asked that we not think about the tragedy as we watched the movie, which I defy somebody to watch the movie knowing about the tragedy, and not think about this film where Alec Baldwin is shooting a lot of people and he's asked at one point, "How many men have you killed?" And he says, "I have lost count." Those sorts of things made the whole experience strange.

I should also note that Mason gave an introduction that I thought was very impassioned and was very well said about how much she loved her friend, how tragic her death is, how the film was completed on behalf of her by the crew members because they loved her so much. And then she read a statement from Halyna's mother, which was expressing support for the screening. And then as she finished it, she said, "By the way, this is a real statement. And if everybody wants to see it, they can come to me and I'll show it to them." And so it's this thing where it's like a mourning of her, it's a celebration of her work, but it's also treated almost as courtroom evidence, you know? Evidence for the defense or for the prosecution maybe is a little bit up to you, but nothing could really settle in the room. Nothing could just be. There's all people staking their claim, adding their side of the story, maybe getting ahead of a story that we're not even aware of.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Nick Newman produced by Jean Kim.