Polanski Docu Director Heads to Switzerland

By Sharon Waxman

Published: September 28, 2009

The director of the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," Marina Zenovich, has headed to Switzerland to continue shooting footage of the controversial legal saga surrounding the Oscar-winning director who was the subject of her movie.

Zenovich, who wrote and directed "Wanted and Desired," has headed overseas to document the arrest of Polanski and to chronicle what happens next, according to one of her representatives.

Also, producer-director Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand") has signed on as producer of the new documentary.

"Wanted and Desired," released last year, has played a key role in the renewed activity surrounding Polanski's 31-year-old case over unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The documentary, which aired last year on HBO, suggested that the judge in the case, Laurence Rittenband, was starstruck by the media attention back in 1977 and that he furthermore violated the terms of a plea bargain struck by Polanski before he fled the country.

The documentary led to a new motion to have the case dismissed by Polanski's lawyers earlier this year. The motion was denied, with a judge saying Polanski first had to appear in court. (Rittenband is now deceased.)

That decision is on appeal with the California Supreme Court.

Zenovich could not be immediately reached for comment.

Comments

November 06, 2009, 1:26AM
Holly F. Greene Says

Many want to wrap themselves in sexual details, ignoring the later Judicial abuse of power against Polanski.

Polanski is in a Swiss Jail today because Santa Monica Judge Laurence J. Rittenband was not fair in his handling of the Roman Polanski case 32 years ago.

Polanski with all the money in the world
and the best lawyer Douglas Dalton,
a fair prosecutor Roger Gunson,
and a sympathetic victim's lawyer Laurence Silver,

did not help to stop the illegal punishment that Judge Rittenband wanted to mete out on Polanski which caused Polanski to flee California after he had already served 42 days.

THE CLICHE - THAT NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW IN CALIFORNIA- IS UNTRUE- AS CERTAIN CALIFORNIANS ARE PROTECTED BY CALIFORNIA LAW.

FOR INSTANCE if you work for a California school and sexually assault your student from behind in a class - the police & County of Los Angeles Santa Monica Justice system will aid and abet the school, their police & the sexually assaulting teacher to cover up the sexual assault, and the sexual discrimination

and if the victim complains of the sexual discrimination and police cover up they will further assault and batter the victim of sexual assault, in a staged "hearing" at Santa Monica Courthouse designed to exclude due process of law, and silence the lamb.

But if you don't work for California –and instead you are a French/Polish citizen like Roman Polanski you will not be given a free pass like the California school photography teacher...

Instead you face a different slant where the Judge will take away your civil rights through illegal Judicial coercion, who will discriminate because you are not American, and so you are forced to flee Los Angeles not because you do not want to face punishment, but because you refuse to submit to illegal punishment and indeterminate prison time, which aims to coerce you - into submitting to deportation.

AND SO THERE'S THE RUB, THE DUPLICITY, THE HYPOCRISY OF THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES SANTA MONICA COURTHOUSE WHERE JUSTICE IS NEITHER BLIND, NOR KIND, BUT WHERE INSTEAD JUSTICE IS A BULLY WHICH IS OUT OF CONTROL!

For more info on staged hearings and duplicity see:

http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=2999255&page_id=4050218...

To conclude - just because Polanski is a foreign famous artist who is to be sentenced for an alleged crime does not give the Santa Monica Judge Laurence J Rittenband a license to illegally take Polanski's right to dispute deportation away, or to illegally punish Polanski, because he is not American.

Polanski was not facing punishment he was facing ILLEGAL PUNISHMENT and that is why he fled. The ELECTED JUDGE WAS ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT HOW HE LOOKED TO THE PUBLIC, AND WAS NOT AT ALL CONCERNED WITH TREATING POLANSKI FAIRLY.

In that sense we must be thankful to Roman Polanski for not caving in to INJUSTICE IN THE SANTA MONICA COURTHOUSE, and to the film maker Marina Zenovich et al, for documenting the Injustice there, and making it visible. This is a great public service to Californians especially since it is not the only instance of INJUSTICE at the Santa Monica Courthouse.

September 30, 2009, 8:19AM
James Broomall Says

A copy of my letter to the Director's Guild:

To Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci:

America is appalled by your aggregate lack of morality and basic human Ethos. To defend a colleague as vile as that pedophile, Roman Polanski, is unforgivable...

You will all feel the backlash as we Americans turn our collective backs on you and you movies...You are all disgraceful and pathetic.

J. Broomall
Moorestown, NJ