Rory Kennedy and Rachel Dretzin will both be investigating the Boeing 737 Max crashes that took place in October 2018 and March 2019 in upcoming projects. Each filmmaker is working on her own untitled doc about the tragedies and the impact they have had on the world. Kennedy’s project, hailing from Imagine Documentaries, has been acquired by Netflix; Dretzin’s feature, which she’s directing alongside her husband and producing partner, Barak Goodman, is for Participant.
Over the course of five months, two Boeing 737 Max jets crashed, resulting in groundings of the popular plane and raising questions about the company’s safety practices and the government’s oversight. In October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed minutes after departing Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 189 people. In March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 also crashed minutes after takeoff. All 157 people on board died.
According to Variety, Kennedy is producing her doc about the crashes with frequent collaborator Mark Bailey. It is a co-production between their company, Moxie Films, and Imagine Documentaries.
“Media reports have focused on improperly vetted design flaws and an internal push for production speed at Boeing, while numerous accounts have pointed to pilot inexperience and poor airmanship,” the source details. “In addition to the human cost, the doc will explore the reputation crisis the iconic company has faced in the aftermath.”
The project will utilize first-person accounts, “to put a human face on the tragedies.” The filmmakers’ goal is to let the audience decide for themselves what caused the tragedies.
Kennedy received an Oscar nod for “Last Days in Vietnam.” A six-time Emmy nominee, she won for producing “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” which she also scored a directing nom for. Next, she’s making a doc about a rarely-acknowledged refugee crisis that occurred shortly prior to WWII, in which a transatlantic liner carrying Jews fleeing Nazis was turned away by the U.S. and Cuba.
Dretzin and Goodman will direct and produce their Boeing 737 Max doc via their Ark Media company, per Deadline. They described the project as “a story filled with remarkable characters; corporate greed; brave whistle blowers; and, of course, terrible human tragedy in the form of more than 340 passengers who lost their lives, and their loved ones who are seeking answers.”
Participant is financing, and Don Edkins, whose son Thabiso Edkins died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, is producing.
“Told through the lens of several family members on a crusade for justice and for answers, the film will delve deeply into how a once great American company allegedly became obsessed with its short-term financial goals at the expense of safety and how America’s regulatory system failed in its duty to protect the flying public,” Deadline reports. “Investigators have focused on several shortcomings in Boeing’s 737 MAX line, including a sensor meant to keep planes from stalling that pushed down its nose. The mechanism could be disabled but pilots were not properly briefed on them and it became a death struggle in mid-air. Subsequent reports have pointed to inspections that found debris in gas tanks that shockingly included tools, rags, and boot covers.”
Participant is “honored that producer Don Edkins has trusted [them] with his story and with the unique access he brings to other families who have suffered such grievous losses. This is a story so personal, yet also such a profound indictment of corporate accountability,” said Chief Content Officer Diane Weyermann. “As directors, Rachel and Barak’s work is marked by extraordinary investigative journalism informed by a deep humanity and emotional intelligence, and we are incredibly proud to support this international team in bringing this story to audiences around the world.”
Dretzin won an Emmy for producing “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” She also nabbed nods for “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise” and “Makers: Women Who Make America,” and for her work as a producer and director on “Frontline.” Her other directing credits include “Far From the Tree,” “Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media,” and “Who Killed Malcolm X?”
