Presents RISK A film by Laura Poitras (92 min., USA/Germany, 2016) Language: English Distribution Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR 1352 Dundas St. West Tel: 416-488-4436 Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1Y2 Fax: 416-488-8438 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com @MongrelMedia MongrelMedia SYNOPSIS How much of your own life are you willing to risk? Laura Poitras, Academy Award winning director of CITIZENFOUR, returns with her most personal and intimate film to date. Filmed over six years, RISK is a complex and volatile character study that collides with a high stakes election year and its controversial aftermath. Cornered in a tiny building for half a decade, Julian Assange is undeterred even as the legal jeopardy he faces threatens to undermine the organization he leads and fracture the movement he inspired. Capturing this story with unprecedented access, Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle. In a new world order where a single keystroke can alter history, RISK is a portrait of power, betrayal, truth, and sacrifice. Executive Produced by Sam Esmail, creator of Mr. Robot. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I first approached WikiLeaks in 2010. They had just published a leaked Apache helicopter video that documented U.S. soldiers gunning down Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists. I began filming the organization in 2011, after the Arab Spring had begun and the U.S. government had launched a multi-agency investigation into Julian Assange and the staff. By enabling secure, anonymous leaking of large datasets, WikiLeaks’ publishing has changed the landscape of journalism. Their activities foreshadowed and enabled the emergence of whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and leaks like the Panama Papers. Today, many mainstream newsrooms have systems for anonymous sources to submit leaks securely. Shooting the material for my documentary RISK prepared me for what happened later when Edward Snowden contacted me. Filming with WikiLeaks, I learned about secure communication, encryption, source protection, and navigating publication of classified information. RISK premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016. Events unfolded before and after the Cannes screening that obligated me to continue working on the film. These included legal and personal pressure and demands by Assange and his legal team to remove scenes in the film in which he speaks about the ongoing sexual offences investigation in Sweden, and new sexual misconduct allegations made against another person in the film. The recent threats against WikiLeaks and their staff by the director of the CIA and the Attorney General are chilling. These threats should be interpreted for what they are: an aggressive effort on the part of the Trump administration to silence the free press and attack the First Amendment. FILMMAKER BIO Laura Poitras is a filmmaker, journalist, and artist. CITIZENFOUR, the third installment of her post-9/11 Trilogy, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary, along with awards from the British Film Academy, Independent Spirit Awards, Director’s Guild of America, German Filmpreis, Cinema Eye Honors, Gotham Awards and others. Part one of the trilogy, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, about the U.S. occupation of Iraq, was nominated for an Academy Award. Part two, THE OATH, focused on Guantanamo and the war on terror, and was nominated for two Emmy awards. ASTRO NOISE (2016), her first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art curated by Jay Sanders, is a series of immersive installations and new work, including: ANARCHIST; O'Say Can You See; Bed Down Location; Disposition Matrix; November 20, 2004; and Last Seen. Her reporting on NSA mass surveillance based on Edward Snowden’s disclosures won the George Polk Award for national security journalism, and shared in the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In 2006, the U.S. government placed her on a secret watch list and, through 2012, she was detained and interrogated at the U.S. border each time she traveled internationally. In 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. government to obtain her FBI and other government files. Over 1,000 pages have been released. She has received many honors for her work, including a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Capital grant, and a Peabody Award. She has attended the Sundance Institute Documentary Labs as both a Fellow and Creative Advisor. She is on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and is Co-Creator of the visual journalism project Field of Vision. THE OATH Credits and Packaging - 1.6 - Fine Cut Deliverables Credits JULIAN ASSANGE SARAH HARRISON JACOB APPELBAUM JOSEPH FARRELL RENATA AVILA JENNIFER ROBINSON ERINN CLARK Directed and Produced by LAURA POITRAS Produced by BRENDA COUGHLIN YONI GOLIJOV Executive Producers SAM ESMAIL VINNIE MALHOTRA Executive Producers CHARLOTTE COOK AJ SCHNACK MICHAEL BLOOM ADAM PINCUS Executive Producers DAVID MENSCHEL JESS SEARCH JOSH BRAUN Editors ERIN CASPER MELODY LONDON LAURA POITRAS Cinematography KIRSTEN JOHNSON KATY SCOGGIN LAURA POITRAS Music JEREMY FLOWER Co-Producer & Additional Editor JONAH GREENSTEIN Creative Advisors KATE CRAWFORD JONATHAN OPPENHEIM Story Consultant RA'ANAN ALEXANDROWICZ Supervising Editor SABINE HOFFMAN Consulting Editor JEAN TSIEN Additional Editor MATHILDE BONNEFOY Co-Producers KATY SCOGGIN ANNE NECZYPOR KIRSTEN JOHNSON MELODY LONDON Additional Camera JUAN LUIS PASSARELLI JOSE PASSARELLI NADIA HALLGREN HENRIK MOLTKE RYAN SCAFURO Sound Recordists LAURA POITRAS WELLINGTON BOWLER THE OATH Credits and Packaging - 1.6 - Fine Cut Deliverables Distribution and Sales SUBMARINE Production Accountant & Line Producer, Germany PANDORA ZOLOTOR Legal Counsel, Praxis Films, Inc. MAURA J. WOGAN, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz IDDO I. ARAD, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz Legal Counsel, Praxis Films Berlin GmbH ANDREAS PENSE, Unverzagt von Have General Counsel, Media Operations, First Look Media LYNN OBERLANDER WILL FITZPATRICK Production Publicity CLAUDIA TOMASSINI & CARSTEN SIEBERT claudiatomassini and associates RYAN WERNER, CHARLIE OLSKY EMILIE SPIEGEL, Cinetic Marketing NANCY WILLEN, Acme PR Line Producer, U.K. RYAN SCAFURO Post Production Supervisor ANNE NECZYPOR Post Production Coordinators JONAH GREENSTEIN MARIA FRYCZ Research & Editorial JENNY PERLIN Editorial CHRISTINA BURCHARD Visual Effects NEIL REYNOLDS KILIAN MANNING Assistant Editors MARIA FRYCZ TOM KNIGHT Research HENRIK MOLTKE Archival Research and Clearances ROSEMARY ROTONDI SIERRA PETTENGILL JOSHUA KOLENIK KATE COE Translation ROOJ ALWAZIR MAX SILVER Post Production Services TECHNICOLOR-POSTWORKS Chief Technology Officer JOE BEIRNE Head of Sound Department JAY RUBIN SVP Theatrical Services CLARK HENDERSON DI Supervising Conform Editor BENJAMIN MURRAY DI Colorist ALLIE AMES Additional Colorist JACK LEWARS DI Producers JOEY HANDY CHRISTINA DELERME ISABEL ANDERSON DI Conform Editors JEFF CORNELL KEITH JENSON RYAN ROLANDELLI RYAN MCMAHON Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer MICHAEL A.H. KURIHARA Additional Sound Editing MICHAEL MCMENOMY ADR Recordist CHRIS WHITE Project Manager BRYN NEUENSCHWANDER Subtitles TECHNICOLOR LOCALIZATION SERVICES Closed Captions CAPTIONMAX Offline Facilities HARBOR PICTURE COMPANY This film would not be possible without these encryption tools: THE ONION ROUTER SECUREDROP SIGNAL PRIVATE MESSENGER WIKILEAKS SUBMISSION SYSTEM THE OATH Credits and Packaging - 1.6 - Fine Cut Deliverables This film would not be possible without these encryption tools: THE ONION ROUTER SECUREDROP SIGNAL PRIVATE MESSENGER WIKILEAKS SUBMISSION SYSTEM In loving memory of Michael Ratner (1943-2016), who devoted his life to justice Archival Sources SUNSHINE PRESS PRODUCTIONS BONFIRE FILMS OF AMERICA C-SPAN ARCHIVES PULSE FILMS NBC UNIVERSAL ARCHIVES LIFENEWS CNN RT NEWS EXPOSURE, LLC AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION For Field of Vision Editorial Manager BRYCE RENNINGER Production Manager FARIHAH ZAMAN Technical Coordinator BEN GARCHAR Data Manager MARK LUKENBILL This film made possible in part by support from VITAL PROJECTS FUND BERTHA / BRITDOC SUNDANCE INSTITUTE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAM with support from Open Society Foundations Ford Foundation JustFilms.