Why Dan Reed Wanted to Do a Doc on Alex Jones and Sandy Hook: ‘We Are Sleepwalking Into This Era of Fantasy and Lies Becoming Mainstream’
variety.comAddie Morfoot Contributor British director Dan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”) spent four years filming Sandy Hook Elementary parents as they attempt to hold Alex Jones — the infamous talk-news conspiracist guru of InfoWars — accountable for the lies he spread about their children’s murders in 2012.
The result is the HBO documentary “The Truth vs. Alex Jones.” Bringing Jones to trial involved years of effort by the grieving parents and their legal teams and culminated in two jury trials for damages in Texas and Connecticut.
The outcome was America’s biggest-ever defamation verdict, with nearly $1.5 billion awarded by juries in the two states to the families, Not surprisingly Jones, who called the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax and was accused of using the tragedy to help sell dietary supplement on his site, subsequently declared bankruptcy.
Variety spoke to Reed ahead of “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” SXSW world premiere on March 11. What made you want to tell this story? I was fascinated by disinformation and the way lies gain a foothold and currency, particularly lies about bad things happening to children.
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