Risk (2016)

The story of WikiLeak's editor-in-chief Julian Assange as seen by documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

Director:

Laura Poitras

Writer:

Laura Poitras (narration)

Stars:

Julian Assange, Sarah Harrison, Jacob Appelbaum

4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Julian Assange	...	Himself
Sarah Harrison	...	Herself
Jacob Appelbaum	...	Himself
Joseph Farrell	...	Himself
Renata Avila	...	Herself - Lawyer
Jennifer Robinson	...	Herself - Lawyer
Erinn Clark	...	Herself - Tor Project developer
Laura Poitras	...	Herself (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ana Alban	...	Herself - Ecuadorian ambassador
Christine Assange	...	Herself - Julian's mother
Louis Bladel	...	Himself - FBI counterintelligence (as Special Agent Louis Bladel)
Hillary Clinton	...	Herself (archive footage)
Amal Clooney	...	Herself - Lawyer
James Comey	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anderson Cooper	...	Himself (archive sound)

Storyline

Filmed over six years, Risk (2016) is a 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, director Laura Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle.

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Plot Keywords:

one word title | written by director | title directed by female | voice over narration | contact lens | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English Arabic Spanish German

Release Date:

12 May 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Asylum

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$76,327, 5 May 2017

Gross USA:

$197,621

Company Credits

Production Co:

Praxis Films Berlin, Praxis Films, Field of Vision (II)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Laura Poitras was romantically involved with activist, journalist, computer security researcher and artist Jacob Appelbaum, who at the same time was a subject of her documentary film project about WikiLeaks. She often mentions Appelbaum in her book "Astro Noise" using only the affectionate form 'Jake'. The opening photo in "Astro Noise" shows Poitras stretched out on a daybed in the sunlight and is credited to Appelbaum.

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Quotes

Julian Assange: Every day you live your life, you lose another day. You don't have that many. So if you're not fighting for things you care about, then... you are losing.

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Connections

Referenced in Breakfast: Episode dated 2 July 2017 (2017)

User Reviews

Take a risk--see an informative and entertaining doc.

"We don't have a problem, you have a problem." Julian Assange

As the ever-cool Assange announces to Hillary's campaign that leaks are forthcoming, he is slightly wrong: No one in the WikiLeaks world, on either side, is without problems. For Assange, four years of asylum-imprisonment in the London Ecuador embassy could not be easy; for Hillary, leaked messages and her private use of a server are only the beginnings of her problems.

It's all about info and who commands it—Laura Poitras's doc, Risk, lets us in to the private world of the Australian journalist and programmer Assange, founder of WikiLeaks in 2006, enabler of Robert Snowden, and purveyor of thousands of pages of secret government documents.

Poitras does a remarkable job keeping above the political sides, even admitting at one point that she does not trust Assange. She makes her presence known from voice over, yet rarely pushes an agenda other than entertaining and enlightening her audience.

Poitras gives the audience as much insight as they could hope for with a subject as opaque as might be expected: "What does it matter how I feel?" (Assange) Brief moments with Lady Gaga and Daniel Ellsberg provide humorous respite from the monotony of Assange's imprisonment.

Assange's answer as to why he does WikiLeaks is as evasive as his answers to most questions. Deflecting accusations of sexual harassment is pure Assange: He gently accuses hardcore feminists of a conspiracy against him. Sweden still wants to interview him about the charges.

Whereas in Citizenfour, Poitras let Snowden come off as a hero, she does not cut the low-key Risk in a way to make Assange saintly: "The risk of inaction is extremely high," he says in a reflection of his activist mentality and the title of the film.

He is smooth and careful, partly right and partly wrong, just like this documentary.