While FBI Director James Comey refers to WikiLeaks as “intelligence porn,” and attempts to field questions about his role, and the Russians’ role, in swaying the American election, Laura Poitras’ film about Julian Assange, Risk, opens. It is rare to see a film about a subject who is less revealed and still find the experience deeply satisfying, however unsettling. Assange, a slippery figure, is self-incriminating as he allows Poitras to interview him on matters of women and the sexual abuse charges brought against him. Poitras, the Oscar winner for CitizenFour was already working on a film about Assange and WikiLeaks when the Edward Snowden story became news, and so Poitras followed that thread to Hong Kong. Snowden makes a brief appearance in Risk, as does Bradley/Chelsea Manning. This film dares to ask, how much of your own life are you willing to risk? They are all risk takers and at risk, especially the documentary filmmaker.

Fascinating to watch is Assange transforming his look: from ashen white, his hair morphs to less charismatic muddy brown, the better to blend in. Confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he has not left in five years, and has still managed to leak files, anything that comes his way, and talk to visitors. Poitras shot Lady Gaga, a master of disguise herself, interviewing him. Poitras presented a version of this film in last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and then the access to him ended. This fissure did not deter her continuing to see just how far he has had a hand at Hillary Clinton’s loss.

Risk is a brilliant documentary, investigative journalism that defies closure, allowing facts and sympathies to unfold, with the suggestion that Risk could be updated regularly. Among other realizations is how important it is for a free press to be vocal, to seek truth behind lies, no matter who is telling them. Early in Risk, the name Daniel Ellsberg is evoked. The man who released The Pentagon Papers in 1971, in recent years told me he feared Bradley Manning—her name then—would be executed for treason. As Poitras said at a special screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center this week, instead, President Obama did the right thing, commuting Chelsea Manning’s sentence in his final days in office. Moving forward, Steven Spielberg is making a film about The Pentagon Papers due out for Christmas. Leaks before Assange and WikiLeaks will be revisited.

Regina Weinreich

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