VENICE
WBUR
[with video]
VENICE, Italy Full-length films about two of Massachusetts’ longest-running scandals make their debuts at the Venice Film Festival this week.
One — “Black Mass” — covers the life of convicted mobster James “Whitey” Bulger. The other — “Spotlight” — looks at how The Boston Globe exposed the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.
The resemblance of the two stories is striking. Both are tales of shocking crimes, institutional corruption, cover-up and a crisis of faith that followed.
The first to premiere was “Spotlight.”
The movie is set in late 2001 as investigative reporters for the Globe secretly work to uncover the crimes of former priest John Geoghan. They search for his victims, and seek to obtain sealed documents that show what church authorities did — and, more importantly, what they did not do.
Walter Robinson, who is played by actor Michael Keaton, was the editor of Spotlight, the Globe’s investigative team that gives the movie its title.
“Reporters, we stumble around in the dark a lot,” Robinson said. “We started out focused on one priest but very quickly learned that Geoghan was the tip of the iceberg, that there were many, many other priests.”
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