Western movie Rust to premiere three years following on-set shooting

Rust, a new western film, will have its world premiere at a Polish film festival. This news comes three years on from an on-set shooting, which killed the cinematographer.

Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin was accused of violating basic gun safety rules in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

However, earlier this year, his involuntary manslaughter trial was dismissed over withheld evidence.

The director of the film, Joel Souza, will introduce the movie at the Camerimage film festival in Torun, northern Poland. He was also wounded in the shooting.

Ahead of the premiere, the festival said: “Almost three years after the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins, a Ukrainian cinematographer… Camerimage is set to honour her memory and remind the world of her legacy”.

They also made it known that the screening would fulfil “a dream of Halyna, who even during the early stages of Rust’s production convinced… Souza that their work should be shown” at the festival.

Olga Solovey, the mother of the late cinematographer, said that she refuses to attend the festival for the film’s production, “especially now when there is still no justice for my daughter”.

In a statement, she stated: “Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologise to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death”.

Hutchins was originally from Ukraine, and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle. She studied and worked as a journalist in Ukraine and across Europe, joining the prestigious AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles in 2015. She was named by American Cinematographer magazine as one of the industry’s rising stars in 2019.

Bianca Cline, who took over as cinematographer, will attend the premiere. It is understood that Baldwin will not attend.

While rehearsing on set in New Mexico, Baldwin was holding a revolver when a live round was fired, which fatally wounded 42-year-old Hutchins.

Filming was halted by the incident, but was finished last year on location in Montana.