R. Kelly is getting both a documentary and a movie, but not the kind we think he was hoping for.
On Monday (May 7), Lifetime announced that both projects about the literal Pied Piper of R&B are currently in the works. The features will be a part of Lifetime’s “Stop Violence Against Women” campaign, aimed at raising awareness of abuse towards women. Each project will shine a light on women coming out of the shadows to share their experiences.
“What we’ve seen — in the last year in particular — is the tremendous power of women’s voices when given the opportunity to share their truth,” said Brie Miranda Bryant, SVP of Unscripted Development and Programming at Lifetime. “But there are more important stories still untold, stories of bravery, resilience, and defiance that demand to be heard. This is one of those stories.”
Accusations of mental, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse have been thrown at the singer for decades, but were either not brought up in the mainstream media or simply ignored. Recently, women of color created a hashtag on Twitter, #MuteRKelly, as a response to the #MeToo movement. Soon after, celebrities such as Ava DuVernay and others joined in on the hashtag. Survivors and members of R. Kelly’s inner circle will finally have a chance to share their stories that the public have never heard.
“We’ve been working for over a year to bring forth the stories of these women”, said Joel Karlsberg, executive producer and CEO of production company Kreativ. “We are proud to team up with Lifetime to shed light on these stories as well as an industry that has looked the other way for so many years.”
According to Deadline, both projects will be executive produced by Kreativ’s Karlsberg and Jesse Daniels. Seasoned music journalist Dream Hampton is executive producer of the documentary series, next to Brie Miranda Bryant from Lifetime. Ilene Kahn Power is an executive producer of the movie with Barbara Marshall in charge of the script.
Has the time finally come for R. Kelly to answer up to the crimes that’ve been thrown at him over the years? Sound off over on Facebook and Twitter.
