On 30 December 2020, Jane Doe, knowledgeable dancer who had simply moved to Los Angeles, was invited by a buddy to a New Years get together on a yacht in Miami. The yacht was owned by the now-disgraced rap mogul Diddy; after all she ought to attend as somebody making an attempt to interrupt into the music business, she remembers pondering within the new ID documentary Chris Brown: A Historical past of Violence. As soon as on the yacht, Jane Doe met Chris Brown, the R&B star as soon as thought-about the following Michael Jackson, and nonetheless a profitable touring artist. Jane Doe knew that Brown had as soon as, famously, assaulted his girlfriend, Rihanna, on the eve of the 2009 Grammys (in reality, because the documentary reminds, Rihanna later stated he assaulted her on a number of events), however that was a very long time in the past. She had been a child then. Brown took an curiosity in her music and dance profession, and supplied her the primary of two drinks.
In line with Jane Doe, one thing instantly felt off. She describes feeling heavy, immediately very drained and practically immobilized. By means of tears (and anonymizing methods), she says Brown led her to the again of the yacht, raped her, then put his quantity in her cellphone, in an effort to join about her profession again in LA – a textbook approach to keep near and confuse the sufferer, as home violence skilled Dr Carolyn West factors out within the movie. The 2 stayed involved for a number of months, till Jane Doe was in a position, by remedy, to come back to phrases with what had occurred to her. “I do know it for a truth. As a substitute of telling myself that it wasn’t. It was. It was rape,” she says within the movie. She filed a lawsuit, she says, solely as a result of she was suggested that it will assist one other lady who had the same expertise with Brown.
Solely a few of that is new info – Jane Doe’s lawsuit was first reported within the press in January 2022, changing into one in every of a number of tales, confined to legalese and copious use of the phrase “alleged”, surrounding Brown within the 15 years because the Rihanna assault made international, galling headlines. The ID movie merely places these tales in chronological order and asks the apparent query: why are these tales largely ignored?
Amongst them, and it is a non-exhaustive checklist: that Brown melted down and smashed a glass window backstage at Good Morning America in 2011; punched a person within the face exterior a DC lodge in 2013; allegedly threw a brick by his mom’s automobile windshield in 2013; punched Liziane Gutierrez, who seems within the movie, within the face after she tried to get an image with him on New 12 months’s Day 2016. A restraining order filed in 2017 by his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran alleged that Brown repeatedly harassed her, punched her, threatened to kill her and her mates and pushed her down the steps throughout their relationship. His ex-manager, Michael M Guirguis, sued Brown in 2016, for punching him a number of instances within the head and neck; the case was settled out of courtroom in 2019.
Brown was additionally sued for sexual assault in Might 2018 (settled out of courtroom), arrested for sucker-punching a membership photographer in July 2018 (prices dropped as a result of inadequate proof), detained in France for alleged sexual assault (prices dropped), and sued by 4 concertgoers who declare Brown and his entourage “attacked and brutally beat” them after a present in July of this 12 months (awaiting trial). After which there’s the case of Jane Doe, which was dismissed for inadequate proof, although home violence specialists within the movie notice that Brown’s alleged habits – flattery, guarantees of assist, withdrawal – are typical of abusers, and that because of the issue of proving sexual assault, solely 6% of these reported finish in an arrest. Brown has denied all allegations, and thru a lawyer referred to as all the pieces raised within the movie “malicious and false”.
Chris Brown: A Historical past of Violence is as marketed: not an investigation, however a collated historical past of public allegations which have by no means stopped Brown’s profession. Brown, who exploded into popular culture as a cherubic and wildly proficient 16-year-old in 2005, could have misplaced a few of the luster for followers over time, particularly after the broadly reported assault on Rihanna. However although there have been quite a few proclaimed “downfalls” of his profession, Brown by no means actually went away. He nonetheless has 144 million followers on Instagram – the second-most of any male musical artist on the platform, in accordance with the movie – and remains to be promoting out arenas, incomes thousands and thousands with every present on his 11:11 tour this 12 months. He has launched 11 studio albums, the newest, 11:11, in November 2023.
The ID movie, which features a post-premiere roundtable on home violence convened by The View co-host Sunny Hostin, makes an attempt to posit why Brown has prevailed comparatively unscathed by the “cancel tradition” he has regularly decried. For one, in contrast to Rihanna – and the movie remembers in graphic element Brown’s brutality towards her (I forgot, or by no means knew, that he choked her close to unconscious in a transferring automobile) – none of Brown’s accusers have been well-known. “What occurred with Rihanna occurred with a well-known individual, and there have been visuals for us to take a look at,” says cultural critic Scaachi Koul within the movie. “With everyone else, you possibly can simply say, ‘oh, it’s bullshit. She lied. And they’ll give me the good thing about the doubt earlier than they provide it to some lady they’ve by no means heard of earlier than.’”
And furthermore, Brown nonetheless makes cash. There are nonetheless sufficient incentives, as a music producer or shopper, to look the opposite method. Jane Doe’s lawyer, Ariel Mitchell, notes what it took to beat the momentum of movie star within the case of R Kelly, a prolific sexual abuser – not simply video proof and years of reviews, however an explosive documentary collection and arranged boycott of his music. Or what it took for the floodgates to open on Diddy – a lawsuit by a fellow well-known individual, his ex Cassie, which detailed horrific alleged abuse and was settled a day after she filed in November 2023.
In the end, the large “reveal”, so to talk, of one other documentary molded within the wake of the 2019 collection Surviving R Kelly is simply how a lot proof and concerted effort it takes to get something by way of the justice system, not to mention when somebody is legendary. The deck, even since #MeToo, stays closely stacked, however not insurmountably so. “We have to discuss holding ourselves accountable. Why proceed to assist people who we all know are dangerous folks? What does that say about us,” says neighborhood activist Dr Michelle Taylor within the movie. “So long as anyone is a sufferer of intimate associate violence, now we have to speak about it. Nobody will get a move.”
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