#Spotlife movie movie#

'As soon as we discovered that the church had made secret payments to victims of other priests - which one of the attorneys referred to as hush money - we began to realize that of course the church did know, that it had to know, and that its sole interest wasn't in the children,' editor Robinson said, 'it was in keeping the story quiet.' That included the head of the Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law, who continued the pattern of moving Father John Geoghan from parish to parish despite his history of serially molesting boys - including seven from one family in Jamaica Plain. The Spotlight team found that those in power knew about the abuse.

#Spotlife movie movie#

Is that possible?' 'Īs the movie makes clear, the number would go far higher.

First we had John Geoghan, and then we said, 'Hey, wait a minute, maybe there are six of these guys.' And then it was, 'Hey, wait a minute, looks like there might be 12. 'We ourselves were shocked by what we were finding. 'The inherent drama that's here in this story is that we couldn't believe what we were uncovering,' said Michael Rezendes, one of the reporters on the team. Inevitably compared to 'All the President's Men,' it's an homage to those who scale walls or break them down - in this case, driven by stories of children wretchedly exploited by predators who were protected both by their collars and their bishops. It's a film that celebrates investigative reporting. 'We started out focused on one priest but very quickly learned that Geoghan was the tip of the iceberg, that there were many, many other priests.' 'Reporters, we stumble around in the dark a lot,' Robinson said. Walter Robinson, who is played by actor Michael Keaton, was the editor of Spotlight, the Globe's investigative team that gives the movie its title. They search for his victims, and seek to obtain sealed documents that show what church authorities did - and, more importantly, what they did not do. The movie is set in late 2001 as investigative reporters for the Globe secretly work to uncover the crimes of former priest John Geoghan. Both are tales of shocking crimes, institutional corruption, cover-up and a crisis of faith that followed. The resemblance of the two stories is striking. One - 'Black Mass' - covers the life of convicted mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger. The other - 'Spotlight' - looks at how The Boston Globe exposed the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Michael Keaton as Spotlight team editor Walter Robinson, left, and Mark Ruffalo as reporter Michael Rezendes, in a still from the film 'Spotlight.' (Open Road Films) This article is more than 7 years old.įull-length films about two of Massachusetts' longest-running scandals make their debuts at the Venice Film Festival this week.