Presents

RISK A film by Laura Poitras

(92 min., USA/Germany, 2016) Language: English

Distribution

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Publicity

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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 Produced by

LAURA POITRAS 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

Music Co-Producer & Additional Editor

Creative Advisors Story Consultant Supervising Editor Consulting Editor Additional Editor Co-Producers

Additional Camera

Sound Recordists

KIRSTEN JOHNSON KATY SCOGGIN LAURA POITRAS JEREMY FLOWER JONAH GREENSTEIN

KATE CRAWFORD JONATHAN OPPENHEIM RA'ANAN ALEXANDROWICZ SABINE HOFFMAN JEAN TSIEN MATHILDE BONNEFOY KATY SCOGGIN ANNE NECZYPOR KIRSTEN JOHNSON MELODY LONDON JUAN LUIS PASSARELLI JOSE PASSARELLI NADIA HALLGREN HENRIK MOLTKE RYAN SCAFURO LAURA POITRAS WELLINGTON BOWLER

THE OATH Credits and Packaging - 1.6 - Fine Cut Deliverables

Distribution and Sales Production Accountant & Line Producer, Germany Legal Counsel, Praxis Films, Inc. Legal Counsel, Praxis Films Berlin GmbH General Counsel, Media Operations, First Look Media Production Publicity

Line Producer, U.K.

SUBMARINE PANDORA ZOLOTOR MAURA J. WOGAN, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz IDDO I. ARAD, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz ANDREAS PENSE, Unverzagt von Have LYNN OBERLANDER WILL FITZPATRICK CLAUDIA TOMASSINI & CARSTEN SIEBERT claudiatomassini and associates RYAN WERNER, CHARLIE OLSKY EMILIE SPIEGEL, Cinetic Marketing NANCY WILLEN, Acme PR RYAN SCAFURO

Post Production Supervisor ANNE NECZYPOR Post Production Coordinators Research & Editorial Editorial Visual Effects Assistant Editors Research Archival Research and Clearances

Translation

JONAH GREENSTEIN MARIA FRYCZ JENNY PERLIN CHRISTINA BURCHARD NEIL REYNOLDS KILIAN MANNING MARIA FRYCZ TOM KNIGHT HENRIK MOLTKE ROSEMARY ROTONDI SIERRA PETTENGILL JOSHUA KOLENIK KATE COE ROOJ ALWAZIR MAX SILVER

Post Production Services TECHNICOLOR-POSTWORKS Chief Technology Officer Head of Sound Department SVP Theatrical Services DI Supervising Conform Editor DI Colorist Additional Colorist DI Producers

DI Conform Editors

Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer Additional Sound Editing ADR Recordist Project Manager Subtitles Closed Captions Offline Facilities

JOE BEIRNE JAY RUBIN CLARK HENDERSON BENJAMIN MURRAY ALLIE AMES JACK LEWARS JOEY HANDY CHRISTINA DELERME ISABEL ANDERSON JEFF CORNELL KEITH JENSON RYAN ROLANDELLI RYAN MCMAHON MICHAEL A.H. KURIHARA MICHAEL MCMENOMY CHRIS WHITE BRYN NEUENSCHWANDER TECHNICOLOR LOCALIZATION SERVICES CAPTIONMAX 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