Bill Wyman documentary dropped by Fest after protests

By editorial board on April 8, 2019

Bill Wyman documentary dropped by Sheffield Doc/Fest after protests about 'sex predator'.

European premiere of The Quiet One is cancelled after complaints about the former Rolling Stone’s alleged grooming of his second wife, Mandy Smith, when she was a child. 

A new documentary about former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman has been dropped from the programme of the forthcoming Sheffield Doc/Festfollowing protests about the circumstances of Wyman’s second marriage, according with The Guardian.

The Quiet One, an authorized documentary about former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, has been acquired by Sundance Selects for the film’s North American rights. As Deadline reports, the film is currently in production.
The documentary is being made in collaboration with the Stones’ founding member, who joined the group in 1962 and departed in 1993. He has led his band Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings since 1997.

 

“My life has been an extraordinary adventure,” Wyman said, via Deadline. “The time feels right to delve into the archive and tell my story before I croak.”

The Quiet One, which is billed as “a first-hand journey through Wyman’s extraordinary experiences”, is director Oliver Murray’s first feature and utilises the bassist’s collection of extensive diaries, as well as photos and videos.

He and Mandy Smith married in 1989, when she was 18 and he 52. He had allegedly been grooming her since she was 13; she later reported that they had first had sex when she was 14.

Sheffield received dozens of complaints over the planned screening – and subsequent Q&A with Wyman and Murray – saying they were giving a platform to an alleged sexual predator.

Smith and Wyman separated in 1991 and divorced soon afterwards. In 2010, Smith – who has campaigned for the age of consent to be raised from 16 to 18 – said: “I was underage, but I was complicit. Now I see it in black and white.”

In 2013, Wyman reported that he had approached police and prosecutors to ask if they wanted to interview him, only to be told they were not interested. He said: ‘We all have a skeleton in the cupboard. In my case, it was publicised to the world and that wasn’t really fair, I don’t think.”

 

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