The legal team backing Live Nation and lawyers representing Travis Scott have spoken out against a documentary titled “Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy.”
The documentary, released Friday, will highlight the experience of the concert-goers caught amid the chaos of the crowd surge that unfolded while Scott sang on stage at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2021, according to the Associated Press (AP). Ten people died, and hundreds of others suffered injuries during the incident, the outlet reported.
Concert promoter Live Nation’s lawyers argued the documentary could sway the public as well as “taint the jury pool” in connection to lawsuits filed in connection to the tragedy, according to the AP. They also pointed to an attorney who filed numerous lawsuits related the Astroworld incident as purportedly co-producing it, the outlet reported.
Scott’s lawyers called the documentary a “farce financed by and containing content from members of the plaintiff’s legal teams, who, weeks after a tragedy, sought to exploit and benefit financially from it, with the clear goals of making money and swaying future juries and public opinion,” according to TMZ.
Travis Scott’s legal team is coming out swinging against the creators of a documentary that takes aim at the tragic events of the Astroworld music festival … calling it a pathetic money grab. https://t.co/JodAEmzXIc
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 29, 2022
The film’s director, Charlie Minn, pushed back against accusations that the film is one-sided, saying that Scott, Live Nation and the Houston Police declined interviews, according to the AP. The documentary reportedly includes cellphone video captured by Astroworld attendees, capturing screams for help and the terror that many described experienced at the event.
“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,” said Minn, who admits the film questions if Scott, Live Nation and others could have taken more steps to ensure the safety of attendees, the AP reported.
Minn reportedly denied that the documentary is a “hit piece toward Travis Scott” and stood behind his portrayal of the events. Scott’s legal team, however, seemingly had a different perspective on the matter, dubbing the documentary a “propaganda piece,” according to TMZ.
“It’s a profit play and a publicity stunt, with no support from the film industry, no distribution, and from a director with no respect from his field who has been termed a ‘trauma pornographer,'” they said, according to TMZ. (RELATED: The Kid LAROI Abruptly Stops Concert After Security Issue With Fans)
Attorneys Neal Manne and Kevin Yankowsky, representing Live Nation, have reportedly wrote a letter to a state district judge outlining concerns surrounding possible impacts of 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,” they wrote, according to the Associated Press.
