Monday, June 15, 2015

Trailer: ‘An Open Secret’ -A look at the lives of children who were exploited and assaulted by some of Hollywood's most powerful players.

Review: ‘An Open Secret’ Spotlights Child Sexual Abuse in Hollywood

You may miss a few moments of “An Open Secret,” either while looking away during its unsettling stories or closing your eyes in frustration. This potent documentary elicits those kinds of reactions.

Directed by Amy Berg (“Deliver Us From Evil”), the film centers on a handful of young men who say that as child actors they were sexually assaulted by older men in the entertainment industry. Manipulations, cover-ups and exploitations are recounted, and in several cases accountability was weak; some of the culprits, we’re told, still work in Hollywood.

The victims and their parents defy the stereotype of hard-driving dream-seekers. They come across as merely trusting, which led them to rely on those who promised successful careers. Such faith was exploited by men who later turned out to be predators.

“He just told me it’s normal, like, this goes on all the time, this is what you have to do,” one young man says he was told after being molested by his manager. “Everybody does this.” Shame and fear of reprisals initially led him to stay silent, and may be keeping more victims from speaking out.

Ms. Berg connects that manager, Martin Weiss, who pleaded no contest to two counts of child molestation in 2012, to a string of other men in Hollywood who have also been accused or convicted of similar crimes. Except for a secretly taped conversation and some menacing music, she resists the urge to sensationalize. Such composure is admirable, but further aggressive reporting is needed. This topic deserves a tenacious call for answers.

Still, “An Open Secret” is affecting, particularly when the victims recount their experiences in voices that crack with emotion or pause with pain. Even if you do look away, hearing them speak is enough.

“An Open Secret” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Explicit stories of sexual abuse.

Opens on Friday June 12, 2015
Directed by Amy Berg
1 hour 37 minutes

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/movies/review-an-open-secret-spotlights-child-sexual-abuse-in-hollywood.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150611&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y&_r=0

Mazel Tov - Rabbi Hershel Schachter!

CLICK ABOVE PHOTO! Rabbi Moshe Feinstein states the very marriage of a gentile woman to a non observant Jew, is equivalent to an open declaration that she will not observe the precepts. This is so, because it is highly unlikely that the gentile member of such a union, will be more committed to Judaism than her remiss Jewish husband (certainly when they are living together prior to their marriage). Unlike mental or tacit negations, explains Rav Feinstein, open declarations do invalidate conversions. When such cases appear before a rabbinical court, its members actually become witnesses to an acceptance declaration that is not sincere. Therefore, it is no longer a tacit insincerity, but rather an obvious one. As such, they are forbidden to sanction the conversion. Regardless of what this Jewish court may declare, the conversion is invalid and the person is not deemed a member of the Jewish nation. In Iggros Moshe, Letters of Moshe (Yoreh De’ah, no. 157), he writes that “According to the Law, it is certain that one who converts for the sake of marriage, does not intend to keep the commandments, and is not a proselyte at all.”

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Monday, June 15, 2015

Trailer: ‘An Open Secret’ -A look at the lives of children who were exploited and assaulted by some of Hollywood's most powerful players.

Review: ‘An Open Secret’ Spotlights Child Sexual Abuse in Hollywood