Director of ‘Rust’ Documentary Reflects on Halyna Hutchins’ Death: ‘I’ve Changed My Whole Idea of What Justice Means’

variety.com:

Carolyn Giardina The new documentary “Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna,” which premieres Tuesday on Hulu, examines the 2021 gun accident that claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of indie film “Rust” and was directed by Hutchins’s friend, Rachel Mason.

Hutchins is remembered fondly in the doc as a friend, wife, mother and aspiring cinematographer. The accident occurred when Alec Baldwin’s prop gun fired a live bullet during production on Oct.

21, 2021, and the film also includes interviews with those on set, subsequent lawsuits, criminal trials and investigations into lapses in on-set safety protocols.

The doc was previewed last week during an FYC event that also provided reflection about Hutchins. The event additionally exposed the challenges of tackling this high-profile story when “Rust” director Joel Souza, who was additionally injured in the accident and was interviewed for the doc, admitted during the Q&A, “I hoped it might have a little more Halyna in it, or a little more about Halyna.” During the panel, which also included “Last Take” director Mason (“Circus of Books”) and producer Julee Metz, another friend of Hutchins, he added, “I know that was your original intention when you talked to me about it, and I could tell when we would talk over the years in the intervening time that, you know, you were under some pressures.” Metz addressed his comments, saying that Mason “had a very clear vision to tell the story of [Hutchins’] life and her work and some of her death, of course, because that’s where the story began, basically.