The back-to-back success of the Robert Pattinson thriller “Primetime” and the documentary “You Can See Everything” has elevated the profile of wunderkind director Lance Oppenheim.
As the town learns more about the 30-year-old filmmaker, much is being made of his origin story: How he cold-emailed Darren Aronofsky’s assistant which led to the documentary “Some Kind of Heaven,” which led to a meeting with Nathan Fielder which led to a meeting with A24, which led to the Elizabeth Holmes documentary.
But over the past 48 hours a less savory story about Oppenheim’s alleged filmmaking past has been making the rounds.
According to author, investigator and advocate Katie Carter, Oppenheim attended a training session for mitigation filmmakers who make short documentaries aiming to humanize criminal defendants in an effort to win them a lighter sentence in the eyes of judges and prosecutors.
In an Instagram post which went up on Sunday, Carter accused Oppenheim of misrepresenting his intentions when he attended the training session and of stealing proprietary footage which he then used for a New York Times 2017 Opinion documentary called “No Jail Time: The Movie,” which he sold to the publication.
“None of us knew any of this,” says Carter. “He lied entirely about his project and what he was up to and he made money by stealing stories from poor people facing crimes and surviving poverty.” Carter goes on to say that her efforts to have Oppenheim take down his short film and return the footage were ignored.
When reached by phone Carter declined to comment. A spokesperson for Oppenheim has not commented, and we’ve reached out to the Times.
This isn’t Oppenheim’s first brush with controversy.
When “Primetime” was released it prompted criticism from Chris Hanson, the former host of “To Catch a Predator,” who was played by Pattinson in the film. Hanson called the film “detached from reality.”