Joey McFarland, the Oscar-nominated producer who made headlines in the past for his role in the 1MDB embezzlement scandal, is stirring up controversy again. In the Release Premiering on Wednesday, McFarland turned heads by walking the red carpet with the original image that inspired the movie, one showing the back of a man known as Peter who escaped from slavery.
On the carpet, McFarland told reporters that he curates and owns a collection of portraits of 19th-century African Americans, citing his “love of history.”
“It’s been very poorly curated and protected. And so, for the last two decades, I’ve been looking for and acquiring as many forgotten and lost images as I can,” McFarland said. Hollywood Reporter Wednesday. He said that what affected him the most was the image known as back skin. During interviews, he has shown the photo, and in a video circulating online he says he brought it so she could have “a piece of Peter” with him at the premiere.
On social media, critics were quick to question why he had these Civil War-era artifacts in his personal collection rather than a museum. Blacklist founder Franklin Leonard shared a long thread seemingly questioning the decision and wondering if McFarland, who said he would donate his collection upon his death, was talking about it in order to raise the value of his collection.
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“Why do you own the picture? Why did you bring it to a movie premiere if the intent was to respectfully preserve it? Did you want a piece of Peter here? Do you collect slave memorabilia that will be donated upon your death? What do you do with him in the meantime? So many questions,” Leonard said. chirpSeemingly suspicion For a superhero movie producer walking the rug with a rare comic book in hopes of raising its value.
April Reign, who created the #OscarsSoWhite, noted with “disgustMcFarland has trademarked his Instagram collection #McFarlandCollection and has started posting yet Release Covered.
“A lot of people look at this image and use it as a symbol of slavery,” McFarland said. THR From the inspirational image of the movie. “He’s a human being. What’s his story? Who are his family? What happened to him? So for me it was a deep dive. I hired quite a few historians; we dug into the archives and found his identity, found his background, and pieced it together.”
Release It stars Will Smith as Peter, with Antoine Fuqua directing. William N. Collage penned the screenplay.
The producer, who described himself Wednesday night as also “a filmmaker, writer, amateur historian and passionate truth-keeper,” said he sees the subject of the photo as a hero and warrior rather than a victim.
We do not need to ignore, hide or cover up the past. We need to protect him. We need to protect those scars, those wounds; We need to view it fully so we don’t make the same mistakes again,” McFarland continued. “We need to curate the stories, the images and the history before it’s lost forever. This is part of my mission.”
McFarland has been involved in controversy in the past. He was embroiled in the 1MDB scandal, where billions were siphoned from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund by Malaysian businessman Jho Low.
Law used some of his embezzled money to court VIPs and Hollywood personalities, including the likes of Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio. Through Hilton, he befriended MacFarland, who then worked as a party booker, and helped fund his aspirations of becoming a film producer, teaming him up with Reza Aziz so the two could launch Red Granite Productions and Produce. The Wolf of Wall Street, which was funded by stolen Low’s millions. Aziz now faces legal action in Malaysia, while his stepfather, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption. Red Granite eventually settled the embezzlement case with the US government in 2018 for $60 million, while in 2019 the government seized tens of millions in accounts traced to McFarland, who also returned millions of artworks given to him by Low.
McFarland, who was never charged with a crime, earned an Academy Award nomination The The Wolf of Wall Streetalso produced by Christian Bale Starr out of the oven And the Father’s house.
McFarland did not respond to a request for further comment.
Alex Reitman contributed to this story.
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