The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
In recent years, Hollywood has raised the banner of political correctness to kill filmmakers who commit heinous crimes and have their character tainted. Sexual assaults such as Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby, who have long been convicted by U.S. courts, have all been stripped of their sacred credentials as Oscar judges; even would-be suspects like Woody Allen, whose courts have found innocent and innocent, are almost reduced to street rats as long as the plaintiffs insist on guilt, and it is difficult for their works to be released in American theaters.
However, in the recently published American "Variety" magazine, reporter Kate Arthur wrote that "How does a documented sexual assault really make it wind and rain in Hollywood?" (How a Registered Sex Offender Thrived in Hollywood) exposes that behind Hollywood's seemingly non-appeasement of the villain, there are still obvious loopholes in the background checks and audits of film practitioners, far from being as strict as they seem.
He committed sexual assault twice, but still joined the Oscar family
The protagonist of the article is a "long-documented sexual assault" named Adam Kimmel. He was born in New York in 1960 and turned sixty in October this year. Kimmel started his career as a photographer and entered the industry as an intern at the age of 19, working on films such as "Angry Bull".
In the early 1990s, Kimmel rose to director of photography and shot in Hollywood A-list works such as "The Ref," "Beautiful Girls," "Capote," and "Never Let Me Go." In addition, he is also an excellent MV photographer, who has shot music videos for well-known musicians such as U2 and Bruce Springsteen, and can definitely be said to be the number one famous director of photography in Hollywood.
Adam Kimmel (front) is now Hollywood's A-list director of photography
But on the other hand, Adam Kimmel was also a full-fledged sexual assaulter. As early as 2003, he was taken to court for having an affair with a 15-year-old underage girl. But in 2007, Adam was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to become one of the 115 new Oscar judges that year. In 2009, he became a member of the American Photographers Guild, establishing his position and reputation in the industry. In 2010, Adam Kimmel, who could not bear the loneliness, was once again imprisoned for improper relationships with underage girls. But in the decade since, he remained active in American film circles, and the Oscar Society and the Cinematographers Guild never considered removing him.
Looking back at the crimes committed by Adam Kimmel, in 2003, at the age of 43, he was sued in Manhattan District Court for having sex with a 15-year-old girl 28 years younger than himself. Prosecutors found that the two had frequent physical relationships in August and September 2003, and that the minimum age for sexual intercourse was 17 under New York state law. In February 2004, Adam pleaded guilty to grade III rape in court and was eventually sentenced to ten years of community custody, plus ten days of community service. In addition, the court sentenced him to a registered sexual assault that must go to the local justice department to report regularly until 2024 to update his personal situation.
However, the information disclosure requirements of the US states on the registration of sexual assault are different, and some places require prisoners to take the initiative to inform each other of their sexual assault status when they seek employment and employment, but some states do not have such a requirement. Whether it is a loophole in the law, or a disregard for the law to take the initiative to conceal it, in short, the registered sexual assault Adam Kimmel, who continues to work for the major Hollywood film crews, has never taken the initiative to mention his criminal identity, and when he was invited by the Oscar Society to join the jury, he naturally did not take the initiative to mention this. On the other hand, when the academy invited him to become a new Oscar judge, it did not carefully investigate the background of the other party, and even the most verifiable information such as the criminal record did not take the initiative to grasp.
Even more bizarre is the fact that just a few months after Kimmel was convicted in 2004, he joined the crew of the new film "Capote" as a director of photography.
Capote poster
Directed by New York director Bennett Miller, the film was quite well received at the box office and word of mouth, and Adam was nominated for the 2006 Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for the film — he even made a cameo appearance in the film as Richard Avedon, the legendary master of cinematography in fashion. Director Bennett Miller clearly had a lot of respect for Kimmel, and soon after was invited to direct Bob Dylan's "When the Deal Goes Down" MV, he continued to use Kimmel in charge of photography.
"Innocent" Hollywood filmmaker
The 2007 topic film Lars and the Real Girl, starring Gosling, was also shot by Adam Kimmel. The film's director, Craig Gillespie, who had previously worked with him on a number of commercials, was a strong believer in the latter's professionalism, and the two had many commercial collaborations since then. "I didn't know he was a criminal, and when I found out later, I never worked with him again." Director Gilespi said in an interview with the "Variety" reporter.
Poster of "Sex Doll Love"
In 2008, Adam joined mexican director Carlos Caron's Rudo y Cursi. "When I made the film, I didn't know about his criminal record, I didn't know it until a few years later, and a friend showed me a newspaper with news reports about him." Director Cuarón said in an interview with the "Variety" reporter.
In those years, adam Kimmel, a recorded sexual assault offender, was a real mess in Hollywood. Actress Natalie Portman wrote and directed the short film "Eve," where she was the director of photography; actress Scarlett Johansson wrote and directed the short film "These Vagabond Shoes," who was the director of photography; and I'm Here, directed by Spike Jones and starring Andrew Garfield.
But it was around this time that Adam Kimmel, who was nearly fifty years old, committed the same crimes as last time in Salisbury, a small town near Connecticut, Near New York. In September 2009, he met a 15-year-old girl outside a local post office, and soon after, the two became intimate. On April 23, 2010, Adam was arrested and imprisoned for grade IV sexual assault, and a Connecticut court sentenced him to five years in prison for failing to voluntarily declare his sexual assault status, but after appeal, the sentence was shortened to four months and suspended for five years.
Because of the lawsuit, Adam Kimmel was unable to join the "Moneyball" crew for the third time with director Bennett Miller as originally planned. However, by the end of 2010, he was still nominated for the Independent Spirit Award again with his earlier completion of "Don't Let Me Go", winning applause and applause from peers and industry insiders.
"Don't Let Me Go" poster
"I didn't know his criminal record at the time, and if I had known, I wouldn't have looked for him for photography, we all learned about it after the film was finished, and I was very shocked, very painful." Our producer immediately contacted the guardians of all the underage actors on the crew, informed them of the situation, and alerted them to the situation. "Don't Let Me Go" director Mark Romanique said in an interview with the "Variety" reporter.
In 2014, Adam continued to work with director Bennett Miller to join the fox hunter crew, but failed to become director of photography, but was only responsible for the auxiliary camera crew. In 2014, Nike made a promotional video to celebrate LeBron James' return to Cleveland, with Kimmel in charge. In 2015, director Bennett Miller was invited to shoot several commercials for a tissue brand in the United States, with Adam Kimmel as usual. In 2017, he also directed photography for Liam Neeson's biopic Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House.
In addition, the environmental documentary And We Go Green, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, premiered worldwide at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2019, with Adam Kimmel as one of the photographers. "I learned about his situation after the fact, and I was very upset. If you had known before filming, you wouldn't have used him. Fisher Stevens, one of the film's directors, said in an interview with Variety.
The political talk show "Colin Quinn: Red State Blue State," which aired on CNN in May 2019, was also photographed by Adam Kimmel. "It's disgusting to me. If I had known this, I would not have used him as a photographer. Comedian Colin Quinn said in an interview with Variety.
This sentence after sentence of "If only I had known" could not help but confuse the reporter Kate Arthur. Ordinary Americans with some social experience know that whether it is a government department or a private enterprise, when applying for employment, they will go through a series of background checks to see if the employee has a criminal record. Why does Hollywood have such omissions and omissions? For the hosts of hollywood's supreme temple Oscars, they have already removed Harvey Weinstein and others from the list because of their misconduct and inconsistency with the code of conduct of the Oscar judges, why did they choose to open the net when they encountered the situation of Adam Kimmel?
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Yan Zhang