Child Abuse Documentary ‘Hollywood Doesn’t Want You To See’ Goes Viral

In 2017, a decades-long forgotten film suddenly went viral and sent shock waves through the entertainment industry. “An Open Secret,” the chilling documentary exposé of child sex abuse within California’s entertainment industry by Amy J. Berg, was a harsh wake-up call for the entertainment industry. The shift from the film’s obscurity to virality is a testament to both social media influence and the ever-more aware public awareness of Hollywood institutionalized abuse.

Released publicly in 2014, “An Open Secret” faced significant distribution hurdles early on. With its tough-as-nails content, or more so because of it, the film could not find a place to screen its critical exposé. The documentary was excluded from many film festivals and faced pushback from within the very community that it was bringing to light. This inability to catch on appeared to amplify the film’s central argument: that Hollywood had a stake in suppressing these abuses.

The film is the story of five such performers whose lives were irrevocably changed forever by their work in the profession. Drawing from interviews with those people and close research, Berg gives a searing picture of an industry system that not just enabled abuse to happen but indeed made it more likely. The film contends that an entire industry of agents, managers, and producers constructed an infrastructure where it was easy to exploit young and vulnerable actors.

Maybe the most surprising thing about “An Open Secret” is the claim that a lot of this abuse was an “open secret” within the industry. The film implies that huge numbers of adults in positions of authority knew what was going on but would not complain, either out of fear of losing their career or being involved in abuse.

The movie involves a number of high-profile defendants, including Michael Egan III, a one-time child actor who sued certain major Hollywood producers. Although the cases were ultimately dropped, Egan’s account provides a reliable narrative strand throughout the length of the film, detailing the entanglement and difficulty involved with victims who do make an outcry.

The second significant case shown in the documentary is that of Marc Collins-Rector, the founder of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN). Collins-Rector, who was later convicted of child sexual abuse, is also shown in the film as a predator who used his powerful position to sexually assault child actors. The film accuses Collins-Rector’s mansion parties as being the venues where the abuse was taking place, with underage boys being given alcohol and drugs before assault.

“An Open Secret” has no hesitation calling out names for the alleged. It identifies a number of familiar players in the entertainment industry, including producers, agents, and talent managers. That willingness to call out alleged abusers was part of what made the movie so incendiary – and perhaps legally contentious – when it came out.

The movie also explores the long-term impact of abuse on victims. A number of the child actors from the past who were interviewed speak candidly about the long-term trauma they have experienced, including substance abuse issues, mental illness, and the inability to form healthy relationships. The individual testimonies put a face to the statistics and court cases and make real the actual-world consequences of the industry’s inaction to protect its most vulnerable members.

One of the most chilling lines in the film is spoken by survivor Evan Henzi, who says, “I didn’t know how bad it was when I was a kid. Looking back at it now, I see how creepy and inappropriate it was.” This is a feeling shared by the majority of the survivors in the documentary, which attests to the ubiquity of grooming and exploitation within the industry.

Even with its significant topic, “An Open Secret” never had an audience. It received a very short theatrical run in 2015 but was unable to catch on. It wasn’t until 2017, when the #MeToo movement started to gain traction and some of the most prominent Hollywood cases of sex abuse were revealed, that the film became the focus of public attention overnight.

The epidemic spread of “An Open Secret” in 2017 was thoroughly fueled by social media. More and more people learned about the documentary’s existence and the blockbuster expose, and web links to the film went viral on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. This grassroots method of distribution allowed the documentary to be seen by many more people than would have seen it in a traditional mode.

The timing of the going viral of the film was also critical. It coincided with the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the resulting deluge of accusations against other influential people in Hollywood. Overnight, the concerns that “An Open Secret” had been bringing to light for so long were on the minds of the public.

The subsequent renewed popularity of the film also generated controversy as to why it had proven so hard to get the documentary out in front of audiences to start with. Most saw the hesitation of the industry to respond to the film as evidence of a structural issue. As director Amy Berg told The Guardian in an interview, “Hollywood doesn’t want to discuss this and nobody else wants to. I mean the government doesn’t want to discuss it, neither does law enforcement. Everyone’s terribly afraid to discuss it.”.

The viral effect of “An Open Secret” had implications beyond increased awareness. It helped trigger a broad dialogue regarding child protection in the entertainment industry and additional protections and accountability required. The secrets revealed in the film, along with the backdrop of the #MeToo revolution, forced the entertainment capital to finally act on its ages-old problems concerning sexual exploitation and abuse.

Since the viral moment of the film in the recent past, there has been some shift in the industry. Tight policies for the handling of children on set have been put in place by most production houses and studios. Increased emphasis on giving assistance and aid to young actors and their families has been seen. Still, activists are not slow to point out that a lot more needs to be done to ensure that child actors and models in the industry are protected.

Its critics have raised the point that several of the legal cases included in the documentary were subsequently dropped or discredited. But its defenders say that the general pattern of abuse to which the film bears witness remains accurate and a problem, even if specific cases may not have been as portrayed.

“An Open Secret” is a bleak reminder of the contribution made by investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking to uncovering uncomfortable truths. In a review in The New York Times, the movie shines a light on “the manipulations, cover-ups and exploitations” that child actors in Hollywood have endured. By speaking out for victims and revealing the systemic problems that permitted abuse to thrive, the documentary has prompted change in the entertainment industry.

The virality of “An Open Secret” in 2017 guaranteed its strong message a broad dissemination, shattering the shroud of ignorance and silence that previously covered up such matters. Although the film provides a gloomy image of Hollywood past and present, it also keeps hope for a better future by encouraging survivors to speak out and demanding more accountability from the industry.

As the debate regarding sexual abuse in Hollywood keeps unfolding, “An Open Secret” is still a landmark work – an unsettling reminder of those abuses that took place and an appeal for a more ethical, more secure future for the film industry.