Oprah Winfrey is joining forces with the filmmaking team behind “The Hunting Ground” and “The Invisible War.” The mogul is collaborating with Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick on an untitled documentary focusing on sexual misconduct in the music industry that’s been acquired by Apple. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news, Winfrey is presenting and exec producing the film, and Ziering and Dick are directing and producing.
Expected next year, the project “will follow a former music executive who grapples with whether to go public with her story of assault and abuse by a notable figure in the music industry.” The doc is being described as “an examination of race, gender, and class, and the toll assaults take on their victims and society at large.”
Regina K. Scully and Abigail Disney are among the project’s exec producers.
Ziering and Dick previously announced they were working on a doc about #MeToo and the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in Hollywood. It’s unclear whether that project is still in the works, or if it has been tailored to solely explore the music industry.
The filmmaking duo have worked together on several docs, with Ziering usually serving as the producer and Dick the director. They received a Peabody, two Emmys, and an Oscar nomination for “The Invisible War,” their examination of rape culture in the military. Their other projects include “The Bleeding Edge,” “The Hunting Ground,” “Outrage,” and “Derrida.” Ziering co-directed the latter.
Winfrey signed a content deal with Apple last year. She currently hosts talk show “Oprah’s Book Club” for its streaming platform, Apple TV+. Next, she’s exec producing “Cherish the Day,” a romance anthology from frequent collaborator Ava DuVernay, for her TV network, OWN. Her more recent acting credits include “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Greenleaf.”