This morning I received a statement from Marina Zenovich, the director of the much talked about documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in response to yesterday’s revelation from former prosecutor, David Wells, saying he lied when making statements in said documentary. Here is the snippet from former Los Angeles District Attorney Marcia Clark’s article in The Daily Beast I ran yesterday:
“I lied,” Wells told me yesterday, referring to his comments in the movie that he told [Judge Rittenband] how he could renege on a plea bargain agreement and send Polanski back to jail after he had been released from a 42-day psychiatric evaluation — the heart of Polanski’s claims of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. “I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I did. The director of the documentary told me it would never air in the States. I thought it made a better story if I said I’d told the judge what to do.”
I have said all I am going to say about this matter to this point and don’t think I need to add anything extra, but it is important I share Zenovich’s statement, and am sure to make known I in no way feel any of this is her fault or makes her documentary any less relevant, just not relevant when it comes to sourcing it in a legal matter. She has no way of knowing Wells was lying or perhaps is no lying about lying if you can wrap your head around that. Either way, here is her statement in full:
“I am perplexed by the timing of David Wells’ statement to the press that he lied in his interview with me for the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. Since June of 2008, the film has been quite visible on U.S. television via HBO, in theaters and on DVD, so it is odd that David Wells has not brought this issue to my attention before.
“For the record, on the day I filmed Mr. Wells at the Malibu Courthouse, February 11, 2005, he gave me a one-hour interview. He signed a release like all my other interviewees, giving me permission to use his interview in the documentary worldwide. At no time did I tell him that the film would not air in the United States.
“Mr. Wells was always friendly and open with me. At no point in the four years since our interview has he ever raised any issues about its content. In fact, in a July 2008 story in The New York Times, Mr. Wells corroborated the account of events that he gave in my film.
“I am astonished that he has now changed his story. It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens.”
It’s unfortunate it’s come to this, but Wells has now discredited himself entirely and has surely caused major problems when it comes to Polanski’s defense team who was most certainly looking at his statements as beneficial.
