- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: WikiLeaks documentary spotlights complexity of Julian Assange
- Date: 3rd July 2013
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 27, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR ALEX GIBNEY, SAYING: "I think the ideals of WikiLeaks remain quite idealistic. The problem became for the organisation - it's a pretty small organisation, it's really run ruthless by one guy, Julian Assange - became how to put those ideals into practise and that's kind of when the rub
- Embargoed: 18th July 2013 13:00
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- Location: United Kingdom
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- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8BZVE38MF6KUYOA7A7UDFNHO6
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- Story Text: Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney, who was behind the movies "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" has turned his focus on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
WikiLeaks publishes secret information from anonymous sources - the most significant of which was the release of almost 400,000 documents regarding the Iraq War, which catapulted the website into the global spotlight.
Gibney admits that there is something quite inspirational about the site.
"Well there's a wonderful David and Goliath quality about WikiLeaks. The idea that a few guys with laptops in their backpacks can make a huge difference, can suddenly collect these secrets and then publish them to the world so I think it's a fantastic idea that a few individuals can make a huge difference when you have these powerful corporations or governments that are surveilling us constantly... you know, the individuals can fight back." he told Reuters.
However, as his film examines, the idealism sometimes isn't practical. Gibney explained "I think the ideals of WikiLeaks remain quite idealistic. The problem became for the organisation - it's a pretty small organisation, it's really run ruthless by one guy, Julian Assange - became how to put those ideals into practise and that's kind of when the rubber hits the road."
The film follows Assange from the beginnings of WikiLeaks through to him achieve infamy through the Iraq War documents, and shows how ultimately he managed to fall out with some of his most loyal supporters.
"There's a complex portrait of the man in this film, both the idealism and what one of the people working for him called 'Noble Cause Corruption' and we went through a lot of anguish trying to get that right and we talked to a lot of people, both people who loved him and people who didn't like him so much." Gibney said.
When asked what Assange thought of the movie, Gibney laughed and said He's denounced it. I'm not sure he's seen it. I know he's read it because he's released an annoted transcript of the film, it's a badly inaccurate transcript which miss all of Bradley Manning's words. I think it's because they used an audio recording of a screening and Manning's words are printed but he denounces it in rather minute fashion in this annotated transcript, which, if you tweet positively about the film, you'll instantly get a tweet back with the annotated transcript. They're on that like white on rice."
The story of Bradley Manning lies centrally within the documentary. His emotional on-line conversations about military secrets as well as sexual orientation are laid bare in text on the screen.
WikiLeaks have recently hit the headlines again after assisting former CIA employee Edward Snowden in his flight from US authorities after he released secret documents about US surveillance.
Gibney admitted he was rather puzzled by this support.
"I'm not sure it was necessary to publicise that they were helping Snowden. I'm not sure what the publicity gained anybody. In fact, I think it has hurt WikiLeaks and it's probably hurt Snowden. So I don't know what to make of it except to say I suspect it's Julian trying to insert himself into the story because he felt the story had passed him by," he said.
The film maker also admits that it's this status in the world's headlines that may be fuelling the internet pioneer nowadays.
"Having had that moment that captured the world's imagination where he was centre stage and all eyes were on him, it's very difficult for him to give that up," Gibney explained. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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