A new trailer has surfaced for Rory Kennedy’s long-awaited documentary “The Trial of Alec Baldwin,” giving viewers an unusually close look at the actor’s life in the years following the fatal 2021 shooting on the set of the Western film “Rust.” Distributor Abramorama has set the film to open in New York on Oct. 1, with a wider theatrical release to follow later in the month.
Ms. Kennedy, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker known for “Last Days in Vietnam,” began following Mr. Baldwin in 2023 and stayed with him through his indictment, the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and his own prosecution on an involuntary manslaughter charge. The charge against Mr. Baldwin was ultimately dismissed with prejudice in July 2024 after a judge found that prosecutors had withheld evidence from his defense team — a ruling that bars the case from ever being retried.
The new footage shows Mr. Baldwin grappling with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed when a live round discharged from the revolver he was holding during rehearsal. “How the hell did I end up in this vortex?” he asks at one point in the trailer. The film also touches on his contentious relationship with paparazzi and tabloid media in the years that followed.
People magazine, which exclusively premiered the trailer, reported that Mr. Baldwin reflects on the toll of the ordeal, telling the camera, “People who watch this will see so much of me at my worst.”
The documentary, which had its world premiere at the DOC NYC film festival in November 2025, was produced by Ms. Kennedy along with Mark Bailey and Julia Marchesi. In a joint statement, Ms. Kennedy and Mr. Bailey said, “We felt this was an important story for our times, a vital story about the state of our judicial system.”
Variety reported last year that Mr. Baldwin agreed to give Ms. Kennedy full editorial control and forwent payment for his participation, and that filming began before he learned Santa Fe County prosecutors had dropped two manslaughter counts against him.
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