Even though rumors around R Kelly and sexual abuse had been floating around beforehand, the Lifetime documentary Surviving R Kelly brought the controversy into focus again, and sparked a general conversation in the public. Also, it resulted in new criminal charges against R Kelly and a cancellation of his record deal with Sony.
Lifetime has now announced a new documentary, Surviving R Kelly: The Impact that will air in early May. The documentary will look at the aftermath of the original documentary and its impact on culture in general. For example, how it energized broad discussions of sexual assault, changed R Kelly’s criminal case, and lead to a 35% increase in calls to sexual assault hotlines in the United States.
Even though this is obviously a marketing tactic by Lifetime to draw even more attention to its original documentary and milk it for all it’s worth, the release of this follow up documentary may in fact be warranted. Surviving R Kelly was groundbreaking and if Lifetime weren’t going to release another documentary about its impact, somebody else should.