In 2015 Greg Sims and his Vesuvio Entertainment outfit entered what initially looked like a key distribution partnership for Amy Berg’s An Open Secret, a hard-hitting documentary that assembles allegations and firsthand accounts about sexual abuse of child actors in the entertainment business. Sims partnered with Rocky Mountain Pictures to handle U.S. theatrical distribution, a move that briefly promised wider exposure for a film many advocates said deserved mainstream attention. Instead, Sims ultimately opted to terminate the overall distribution arrangement — a sudden reversal that fed a broader narrative about how incendiary, accusatory projects struggle to find reliable distribution channels. The film’s difficulties reaching broad audiences became part of the controversy surrounding An Open Secret itself: critics and supporters debated whether commercial distributors were unwilling to touch such explosive subject matter, or whether legitimate legal, logistical and marketplace concerns were the deciding factors. Either way, Sims’ withdrawal is a noteworthy episode in the documentary’s fraught release history and in the larger story of how the film industry handles accusations that strike at its own institutions.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
Distributor Greg Sims Abruptly Walks Away from Theatrical Release of Amy Berg’s Explosive Documentary An Open Secret
An Open Secret (documentary) / 2010s
In 2015 Greg Sims and his Vesuvio Entertainment outfit entered what initially looked like a key distribution partnership for Amy Berg’s An Open Secret, a hard-hitting documentary that assembles allegations and firsthand accounts about sexual abuse of child actors in the entertainment business. Sims partnered with Rocky Mountain Pictures to handle U.S. theatrical distribution, a move that briefly promised wider exposure for a film many advocates said deserved mainstream attention. Instead, Sims ultimately opted to terminate the overall distribution arrangement — a sudden reversal that fed a broader narrative about how incendiary, accusatory projects struggle to find reliable distribution channels. The film’s difficulties reaching broad audiences became part of the controversy surrounding An Open Secret itself: critics and supporters debated whether commercial distributors were unwilling to touch such explosive subject matter, or whether legitimate legal, logistical and marketplace concerns were the deciding factors. Either way, Sims’ withdrawal is a noteworthy episode in the documentary’s fraught release history and in the larger story of how the film industry handles accusations that strike at its own institutions.
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