Dan Reed, Director of "Quit Neverland": NPR

The new pop star Michael Jackson, once hailed as the king of pop, is at the center of the new documentary Leave Neverland, which airs this weekend on HBO. The four-hour documentary is dedicated to two of Jackson's alleged sexual abuse victims, Wade Robson and James Safechuck. Robson and Safechuck, both 30, say Jackson sexually assaulted them for years when they were only 7 or 10 years old. Director Dan Reed spent three years editing this documentary.

"For many years, Jackson has portrayed himself as an innocent child lover and we wanted to make it clear that what was happening was a sexual activity, no doubt," says Reed.

Reed notes that he first approached the stories of Robson and Safechuck with "a lot of skepticism," but after extensive research, he checked their claims with police documents dating back to 1993 and Criminal investigations conducted between 2003 and 2005 against Jackson by the LAPD by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's. "We did not find anything that contradicted and we found many things that corroborate the stories of Wade and James," says Reed.

In the days leading up to the film's release, Jackson's family members interviewed media in response to Leave Neverland vehemently deny these accusations.

"We're talking about something that the Jackson family has already accepted, I believe, is that Michael has spent many nights with little boys," said Reed. "Now, what we are looking at, is what happened once the door to the room was closed."

Reed believes Jackson's "blind devotion" as a music superstar is what has kept the accusers and their families from becoming aware of abuse and making themselves known for years. Leave Neverland 10 years after Jackson's death in the era of the # MeToo movement and the #MuteRKelly movement. Reed said that even though he thought the evidence presented in this film could have been made public while Jackson was still alive, the #MeToo movement persuaded Robson's mother to take part in the production. "I think we are fortunate enough to gain momentum behind the idea that we should listen to people who say they have been sexually abused, whether they are women, children or men."

The way in which Robson and Safechuck's love for Jackson matches the charges of abuse is one of the most complicated aspects of Leave Neverland. It's a fundamental emotional theme that Reed called the "contradiction to the heart" of the film.

"It's the complexity that has driven me to really want to tell the story, namely that in an abusive pedophilia relationship, there is both a loving affection, a caring mentorship and some These two things coexist, "says Reed. "But we have to understand it, otherwise we will never understand the sexual abuse of children, we will never be able to protect our children, which is the most important thing people can get out of this movie."