Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ Manages to Stir up More Controversy

Alec Baldwin can’t get away from the Rust tragedy. Three years after the devastating tragedy of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ accidental shooting death occurred on set, Backers are premiering the Western film, shot in New Mexico, in Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival, per Deadline. The screening is to honor Hutchins, who is Ukrainian. She was also a regular at the cinematography-focused event. But the decision to screen the movie has sparked major backlash from the cinematography community. 

“I’m all for memorializing Halyna and her beautiful work but not by screening and thereby promoting the film that killed her,” Oscar-nominated Black Panther Director of Photography  Rachel Morrison posted on Instagram under the festival’s official post announcing the screening. 

Normal People and His Dark Materials Director of Photography Suzie Lavelle posted: “Promoting a film that shot with unsafe practices — leading to the death of its cinematographer — reconsider please.” 

Deadline notes they’ve seen group chats in WhatsApp groups used by hundreds of regular Camerimage Festival delegates, all of whom are working DoPs – some who say they knew Hutchins personally – and the reactions are not pleasant. Some describe the choice as “distasteful” and “tone deaf.” One person in the chat wrote: “I wonder why they decided to show this film instead of showing her earlier films if this is about honoring her work.”

Whether Baldwin will attend the debut screening is not yet known. His charges of involuntary manslaughter were dropped in August after a court ruled that key evidence was mishandled. Hutchins’ family was not happy with the decision. The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reedm is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter. 

Per an official logline, Rust tells the story of “a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after he’s sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.”