In a move that seems ill-timed and far too soon, a documentary about the recent Astroworld tragedy is set for release in the U.S. despite lawyers’ concerns.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, the luridly titled Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy is set to open in 11 cities across Texas, including Houston, the site of Astroworld. The doc will feature interviews with several survivors of the concert, as well as video footage of the event shot by those who were there.
The director Charlie Minn has tried to insist that his film with the title Concert Crush is balanced and fair. “My job is to make the most truthful, honest, sincere documentary from the victim’s point of view … We need to know about these stories to prevent it from happening again,” he said.
Minn has previous when it comes to possible incendiary documentaries: he made a film about a tragic shooting at a suburban Houston high school in 2018. His new doc supposedly suggests that Scott could have done more to prevent the festival’s conditions that led to so many deaths, although Minn has assured people that it isn’t just a “hit piece.”
Live Nation and Houston police declined to speak to Minn for the doc, which isn’t surprising considering the police are still investigation the tragedy. And lawyers representing Live Nation have expressed serious concerns about Concert Crush, believing it could “taint the jury pool.” The promoter is being widely sued for its role in Astroworld.
Interestingly, Live Nation’s lawyers say an attorney who filed lawsuits related to the tragedy also co-produced the documentary. “The involvement of plaintiffs’ lawyers in the film, and the publicity the filmmakers and producers are trying to generate for it raise significant issues about efforts to taint the jury pool,” Neal Manne and Kevin Yankowsky, two of Live Nation’s attorneys, stated in the letter.
According to Brent Coon, an attorney representing thousands of Astroworld concertgoers, the doc doesn’t represent a threat to the jury if the case goes to trial. “I don’t think any lawyer in this case could fan the flames much to change… what the public’s perception of all this is going to be,” he said.
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Concert Crush is set to open in the Texan cities on Friday. It’s currently unclear if it will receive a wider streaming release.
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