‘No Accident’ Director Kristi Jacobson on Unraveling the Unite the Right Conspiracy & the George Clooney Movie That Served as the Film’s Cinematic Inspiration

Awards Daily talks to director Kristi Jacobson about her HBO doc No Accident, which follows the lawsuit against the leaders of 2017’s Unite the Right rally.

Early on in director Kristi Jacobson’s No Accident, attorney Michael Bloch mentions how the world has changed at least six times since the Unite the Right rally in 2017.

“Trump was president, then there was a global pandemic, then the election, and then Post-Trump world,” says Jacobson. “White supremacy is one of the things that was really clear in the making of the film over the past five years. It has a very strong hold in this country and in our world.”

While the subject sadly never seems to be irrelevant, in her HBO documentary, Jacobson aims to spotlight the courage of the plaintiffs and the lawyers rather than focus on the defendants.

“I like to hold on to the resolve of the people who are fighting for equality and for our shared humanity, dignity, and peace. We tried to really center the bravery, not in an extraordinary way, but the everydayness of our plaintiffs.”

Jacobson describes her approach to filming the plaintiffs as “trauma-informed.”

“We decided that when we sat down with them, we’d try to be with them as much as we could and we wouldn’t ask them to specifically retell what happened. We knew creatively that was going to make things harder in the edit, but it was really important. However, [plaintiff] Marissa [Blair] did share the details of what happened with her organically.” On August 12, 2017, Blair attended the counterprotest to Unite the Right with her friend Heather Heyer, who was killed when James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into the group.

One of the challenges the director faced was not having access to film or record audio in the courtroom. Because of this, she worked with the plaintiffs and the lawyers to reread their statements.

“Ultimately we connected with milkhaus, the group who made the animation for the film. We decided, let’s not try to invent a new genre; let’s try to do something that’s powerful and simple and helps to bring audiences into the courtroom. Further into the edit, we worked with temp voices, but we had stayed in touch with the plaintiffs and the lawyers, and we asked them if they were in a good place to read their testimony, and all of them did that. It was moving. I can’t speak for how that felt for them, but I’m hopeful, based on our shared conversations after the film premiere, that this is playing at least some small role in their healing over the journey of their lives.”

Even though Marissa Blair was generous in sharing her story for the doc, when it came time to record her testimony, Jacobson decided it was more powerful if we didn’t hear her voice.

“One day, we included Marissa’s testimony as text only, and I just never felt like I wanted to ask her to read that. I felt like her words were really powerful as written. She had already shared so much during our interview and during that process.”

Since she started working on No Accident in 2018, Jacobson says the No. 1 focus has been to expose the truth about what happened, specifically the cross-country conspiracy to plan and commit violence based on racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

“I’m really grateful that we were able to make a feature-length documentary about this [subject] because in these times with the very quick news hits or social media posts, we had the opportunity to unpack the many layers of what happened and of the effort to dismantle this kind of hate and the hold that white supremacy has in this country. We were able to really get to know and understand some of the plaintiffs and how they collectively raised their voices. Each of the attorneys brought their legal expertise, brilliance, and talent, but also their personal experience and commitment. We were able to bring all of that together. We chose very intentionally not to interview any of the defendants and to only use videotaped depositions, evidence, trial testimony, and the public record to reveal their role in this conspiracy. That was also really important.”

Jacobson says it’s also important for audiences to learn about everything that took place and not only what you see on TV and social media.

“A lot of people remember the literal images of the torch and the men screaming, ‘You will not replace us!’, which itself needs to be remembered. But what many people don’t know about that night is the violence that took place. When the story got packaged, importantly we were focused on Heather Heyer who was killed, as it was extremely important to focus on that. But there was so much more that happened, and also not all the evidence had come out yet.”

While the delays with the trial and filming were frustrating on many levels, Jacobson and her crew used the time to hone a specific shooting style for the doc, finding inspiration in an Academy Award-winning movie starring George Clooney, which she says helped them make the film feel more like a legal thriller rather than a “how to win a lawsuit” film.

“We took our creative inspiration from unexpected places. Michael Clayton was our cinematic inspiration, and when I tell you we watched that five or six times throughout the making of the film, I’m not exaggerating.”

No Accident is available to view on HBO Max.