Neon is making “Totally Under Control,” its documentary about the White House’s response to COVID-19, available to stream on its website for free through Election Day on Nov. 3.
The company made the announcement Thursday and said it is also setting up Twitter watch parties throughout the week along with Q&As with directors Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger. The filmmakers will host a watch party on Friday at 4 p.m. PT with Judd Apatow.
“Totally Under Control” was filmed secretly over the last few months and was completed just days prior to its launch on Oct. 13. The film, which debuted at No. 2 on Apple in its opening week, is currently streaming on Hulu.
The documentary was recently nominated for four Critic’s Choice Awards including best political documentary, along with an honor for most compelling living subjects for whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright.
”This…will give you an intensely factual account of how the federal government handled this pandemic. Vote accordingly,” said Gibney.
Neon unveiled “Totally Under Control” on Sept. 10, a day after revelations from journalist Bob Woodward that President Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous and repeatedly downplayed it publicly.
Gibney said at the time, “With an extraordinary team of collaborators, I was compelled to mount this production when I saw the scale of incompetence and political corruption by the Trump administration in the face of a global pandemic. Now we know that by Feb. 7, Trump knew that COVID was, in his words, ‘a deadly virus.’ But instead of working to protect the American people by containing the virus, the current administration was willfully blind to the growing contagion — ‘It’s like a miracle; it will disappear,’ said Trump — in hopes that voters wouldn’t notice any problems until after the 2020 election.”