The trial of R Kelly’s former manager Donnell Russell, on charges of threatening a cinema that was screening Lifetime’s ‘Surviving R Kelly’ documentary, has begun in New York.Attended by several of Kelly’s accusers, the screening at New York’s NeueHouse Madison Square complex was evacuated in December 2018 after someone called the police, fire department, New York City information service and the venue itself saying that they were going to “shoot up the place”. Although police did not consider these credible threats, they still called a halt to the event.Russell denies making any of these phone calls, although the trial focusses specifically on calls made to the venue itself.Prosecutors say that Russell made a number of calls to the venue on the day of the planned screening of the documentary, in an effort to have it called off.