Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange has Been the Focus of Numerous Documentaries: Alex Gibney’s We Steal Secrets Explored the website Assange Created that exposed US WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ, AN IMMENSE CACE OF US DIPORATIC Cables, and Much More. Oscar Winner Laura Poitras Also took A Crack at Assange and Wikileaks in Her 2016 Documentary Risk. Assange Himself Directed A Documentary Short, Collateral masonryAbout the 2007 video wikileaks releassed that Showed a US MILICOPTER CREW OPENING FIRE ON UNARMED JOURNISTS AND CIVILIANS IN IRAQ.
That May Sound Like Sufficient Coverage of Assange, but Director Eugene Jarecki Shows Important to Revisis and the Work of Wikileaks in Light of Rising Authoritarianism in the US and Abroad. At a moment when democracy is in Retreat (as Author Anne Applebaum Has Put It), Jarecki’s Film The Six Billion Dollar Man Raises the Question of Whether Government by the People and for the People Can IF Citizens Are Denied Information on What Political Leaders Are Doing in Their Name.
The $ 6 Billion of the Title References to Jarecki’s Estation of the Amount of Money the US Government has spent to prosasecute assige, going back to the Obama Administration. He has faced a variety of charges including conspiracy to violate the espionage Act for publishing classified information supplied to Him by former Army Spec. Chelsea Manning, and Computer Hacking. To jarecki, these all fall under the rubric of killing the messenger – Going after assige Because he dared peel back the curtain on government secrets.
The Six Billion Dollar Man Addresses MANY of Criticisms that have have been leveled at assange over the years – for instance, that His website recklessly reletaned unredacted information, with the consideration HARM to individuals named in documents. In the case of the US diplomatic cables release, the documentary points out that wikileaks worked careful with the New York Times, Der Spiegel and the The Guardian To scrub the cables of information that Would Identify Sources, But it was a The Guardian editor who chose to publicly share the password to the full trove of unredacted cables.
The movie Also Questions the Prosecution of Assange in Sweden, where he was was wanted for the two Women Sangu tests after Having Sex with Assange. For Political Reasons, Jarecki ASSERTS, Prosecutors eventually bandied About the word “rape” though the time involved did not accuse Assange of Sexual Assault.
Jarecki Interviews an iLANDIC HACKER NICKNAMED Siggi who joined wikileaks as a volunteer when he was just a teenager. The film reveals siggi, trying to the SAVE HIS OUT SKIN IN A PEDOPHILIA INVESTIGATION, AGREED TO THE FBI’S REQUEST to wear a wire in anmt to the Ensnare Assange. But the recordings never fbi what fbi agents were hoping for – the Evidence of Assange Encourage People to illeGally hack ino government Computer networks.
Jarecki hints that assange can be his his worst enemy by displaying a mercurial temperament and superior attitude. One person close to assige observes in the film, “He Can Be Arrogant, Eve Cruel.”
But the Documentary isn’t Putting Assange’s Personality on Trial But Questioning the Lengths the US Government Wold Go To Shut Him Down. Ecuador, under-president Rafael Correa, Assange’s Grants Emergency Request for Asylum, Allowing Him to Stay Indefinitely in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Where Assange SUKS refuge as uk Autorities appeared set to exctradite US Successor, immediately uppon Taking Office, Began to Entertain Offers of an Aid Package from the First Trump Administration (“Bribe,” if you prefer) to the Dislodge Assange from the Embassy.
Jarecki Also Reveals that Casino Magnate Sheldon Adelson, A Big Trump Backer, Had His Fingerprints on Surveillance Equipment Installed in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to Monitor Assange and Record His Voice at All Times.
The Six Billion Dollar Man is premiering in the special screenings section of cannes. It serves as a companion piece, in a sense, to another movie Bowing at the Festival: Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5. Both films cogently argue that ostensible democracies in the us and elsewhere squash anyone who tries to tell the Truth – anyone who insists that 2 + 2 = 4. Assange did the math, and paid the price.
Title: The Six Billion Dollar Man
Festival: Cannes (Special Screenings)
Director: Eugene Jarecki
Sales Agent: Wme
TIME RUNNING: 2 HR 6 MINS
