A new trailer for the documentary We Steal Secrets, telling the story of the formation and subsequent rise to prominence of international spoiler alert service WikiLeaks, has been released. The film covers the history of the site and its role in the leak of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, handed over by the currently on-trial Bradley Manning, amongst other notable events in the website’s colourful history. The film was shown at Sundance in January and recently given a limited release in New York and LA, before being released worldwide in the coming months.
The trailer mainly covers the covert life that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leads, and some reactions (both positive and negative) to his relentless pursuit of government transparency. Given the current scandals that the Obama administration is working its way through, the film is perfectly positioned to ask plenty of questions about if freedom of information is necessarily good or bad, and whether or not there can be such a thing as too much knowledge.
The film has already caused controversy with its incendiary title, and WikiLeaks tweeted a statement taking issue with it. An Assange fansite even went as far as publishing a transcript of the movie with corrections as a form of rebuttal. Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been in exile for a year or so after attempting to escape Swedish sex charges, something that is also covered by the documentary.
Whatever happens with the movie, its sure to raise some interesting questions and will serve to bring WikiLeaks back into the public consciousness. This, combined with the trial of Bradley Manning – the forgotten victim of this whole saga – mean that public interest in this whole area will be at an all time high.
We Steal Secrets is released nationwide on the 12th of July.