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New #MeToo documentary gives voice to Russell Simmons accusers

WMC features Drew Dixon in 'On the Record' (Photo courtesy of HBO Max)
Drew Dixon in "On the Record" (Photo courtesy of HBO Max)

One of the #MeToo movement’s most sensitive issues is how and when to go public with accusations. Documentaries and news reports rarely show this important decision process for a #MeToo survivor seeking justice. However, the HBO Max documentary On the Record chronicles this journey for Drew Dixon, one of several women who have accused entertainment mogul Russell Simmons of rape or other sexual assault. On the Record — available on May 27, the day that HBO Max launches — includes interviews with Dixon and other Simmons accusers; cultural critics and social activists, such as #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke; and some of Simmons’ former business colleagues.

Simmons, a founder of entertainment companies Def Jam and Rush Communications, has denied all the allegations and says that the sexual encounters were consensual. In 2017, he stepped down from his businesses, after several of his accusers came forward. In addition, Simmons has been under police investigation for sex crimes, and he is being sued in California by a woman who claims he raped her in 1988. Simmons declined to participate in On the Record, but a statement with his denial is included in the documentary.

When Dixon began participating in the documentary in 2017, she hadn’t yet decided whether or not to go on the record with the full details of her accusations against Simmons. Dixon says that Simmons raped her in 1995, when he was her boss at Def Jam Records and she was a Def Jam A&R executive.

One of the things that triggered Dixon to come forward was Simmons’ repeatedly stating in his denials that he’s not a violent person. “I was absolutely disgusted, because he was violent with me,” Dixon tells Women’s Media Center. “He physically tackled me, I physically fought against him, and I begged him [to stop] and cried and said no.”

Dixon says that she got involved in On the Record because she knew filmmaker Liz Garbus, whose husband, Dan Cogan, was an executive producer of the documentary. On the Record directors Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick knew that Dixon had a #MeToo accusation about Simmons, but Dixon says the filmmakers did not pressure her to go public. However, the documentary “still wanted to film me, even as I contemplated my choice … I felt it was important to capture what I was going through.”

Dixon ultimately went public by telling her story to The New York Times reporters Joe Coscarelli and Melena Ryzik. The movie did not film Dixon’s interviews with The New York Times, but the documentary includes footage of Dixon’s phone conversations with Coscarelli, her Times photo shoot, and how Dixon dealt with reactions after the article was published.

Because of the statute of limitations for sexual assault in New York state (where Dixon says that Simmons raped her), Dixon cannot pursue criminal charges against Simmons. But if she could, she says, “I probably would pursue it … I think it’s so important for the statute of limitations to be extended.”

After leaving Def Jam, Dixon became an A&R executive at Arista Records in 1996. But she says that when Antonio “L.A.” Reid became president/CEO of Arista in 2000, he often sexually harassed her, and that led to her leaving the company in 2004 to go to Harvard Business School. Sony Music’s Epic Records fired Reid in May 2017 for alleged sexual harassment. Reid declined to be in On the Record, which included his statement denying Dixon’s allegations.

Dixon adds, “I took a huge leap of faith in trusting Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick with all of our stories and with the broader story of the Black woman’s unique experience and dilemma about coming forward with abuse within the community. … And they did that so beautifully.”

Although some of Simmons’ accusers in the film are white (such as Keri Claussen Khalighi, Tina Baker, and Kelly Cutrone), the vast majority of the accusers are Black, including Dixon, Sheri Sher, Alexia Norton Jones, Sil Lai Abrams, and Jenny Lumet. Ziering tells Women’s Media Center that “about halfway through” making On the Record, the filmmakers decided that the documentary’s overall theme should be empowering Black women in the #MeToo movement. “The predator is not the material,” Ziering adds. “It’s about these women’s voices.”

One of the documentary’s messages is that support in a racial community should not be defined as enabling illegal acts or silencing accusers. And the movie also doesn’t shy away from the issue of colorism — the belief that just as white people have “white privilege,” then light-skinned Black people have “light privilege.” In a standout scene in the film, Simmons accusers Dixon, Abrams, and Lumet have a solidarity meeting with each other and acknowledge that they have “light privilege,” which affects how they might get preferential treatment over darker-skinned #MeToo survivors.

Oprah Winfrey, through her distribution deal with Apple TV+, had initially signed on as an executive producer of the documentary. But then Simmons, rapper/actor 50 Cent, and others in the Black community publicly pressured her to drop the movie.

Winfrey then backed out of the project, saying that she felt there was “more work to be done on the film to illuminate the full scope of what the victims endured.” The exit of Winfrey and Apple TV+ happened just two weeks before the movie’s world premiere on January 25 at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it received standing ovations and earned rave reviews. HBO Max acquired On the Record in early February.

“We were able to rebound because we had a really incredible team and an extended network of support to help us,” says Dick. He has this advice for filmmakers who might be in a similar situation: “If you believe in yourself, stand by it.”

Dixon believes that her experience with the documentary ultimately made her stronger. Although Dixon says that she’s “grateful” for Winfrey’s continued support of #MeToo survivors, she also came to this conclusion: “To every survivor out there, you don’t need Oprah Winfrey. You don’t need a movie. You are enough.”



More articles by Category: Arts and culture, Media
More articles by Tag: Sexual harassment, Sexualized violence, Film, #MeToo
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