Centre Daily
Matt Sandusky is very thankful to the young men who testified at his adoptive father’s 2012 trial. Without their courage, Matt Sandusky said, he would not have had the strength to go to prosecutors and disclose for the first time that his adoptive father abused him.
More than a year later, Matt Sandusky has taken another step forward.
In his first public comments, Matt Sandusky shared his story in “Happy Valley,” a 100-minute-long film premiering Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He said his participation in the film was the first step for him to come out of the shadow of the scandal and advocate for survivors — including himself.
“My role in the film was to share the perspective of a survivor, to give survivors a voice,” Sandusky said in an exclusive interview with the Centre Daily Times.
“There were many victims in this case who came forward for the trial — I have immense respect for their strength — and because of those guys, I had the courage to come forward to the authorities to tell what I had to tell — the truth.”
Matt Sandusky declined to talk to the CDT in detail about what he said to filmmakers, though he did say the topics he discussed included his childhood, his relationship with his adoptive father and the Sandusky family and the abuse by Jerry Sandusky.
"I hope that people will begin to understand what I have gone through," he said.
“Happy Valley” is directed by Amir Bar-Lev and poses questions such as whether Jerry Sandusky’s abuse of young boys was an “open secret” in State College. In a short preview of the film on the Sundance website, filmmakers said it explores the identity crisis that ensued here and goes on to uncover a “much more complicated and tragic tale.”
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