John Branca — UCLA Interview — “Leaving Neverland”

John Branca discusses the different way Leaving Neverland was treated by HBO, as opposed to the way any other “documentary” would need to be.

John Branca: I’m thinking obviously of Leaving Neverland where the point of view is presented as fact, but there’s no other side to it. In fact, the director of that documentary said, “I had no interest in talking to anybody else.” So, I would challenge you to name one media outlet where if you went to your boss and said, “I don’t feel like talking to anybody who has any fact or opinion that might shoot down my theory,” that film that article never get written, never get made.

So, I found it interesting that HBO, they didn’t have journalists come to the screening, they had movie reviewers. And if this had been presented as a movie and an opinion, fine. If they had presented both sides like you would require in a courtroom, the courtroom requires both sides. So, something like Leaving Neverland is the one side, in a courtroom, you get to get the other side and then you get to make a decision. That didn’t happen here.