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We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Gibney
Written by	Alex Gibney
Produced by	Alex Gibney Marc Shmuger Alexis Bloom
Starring	Julian Assange
Cinematography	Maryse Alberti
Edited by	Andy Grieve
Music by	Will Bates
Production companies	Jigsaw Productions Global Produce
Distributed by	Focus World
Release date	January 21, 2013 (2013-01-21) (Sundance)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is a 2013 American independent documentary film about the organization started byJulian Assange, and people involved in the collection and distribution of secret information and media by whistleblowers. It covers a period of several decades, including considerable background.

Synopsis

The 1989 WANK worm attack on NASA computers, originally thought to threaten the Galileo spacecraft, is depicted as the work of Australian hackers, including Assange. The founding of Wikileaks in 2006 is followed by coverage of several key events: its 2009-2010 leaks about the Icelandic financial collapse, Swiss banking tax evasion, Kenyan government corruption, toxic-waste dumping, Bradley Manning's communications withAdrian Lamo, uploads to Wikileaks of theIraq and Afghanistan war documents, diplomatic cables, and video, exposure to the FBI by Lamo, and the accusations of sexual assault made against Assange. Interview subjects include Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, James Ball, Donald Bostom, Nick Davies, Mark Davis, Jason Edwards, Michael Hayden, Adrian Lamo, J. William Leonard, Gavin MacFadyen, Smári McCarthy, Iain Overton, and Vaughan Smith.

Production

Assange did not participate in the production, so previously recorded interviews were used. Manning was also unavailable. John Young and Deborah Natsios of Cryptome contributed contacts and research material, but after lengthy negotiations, ultimately declined to be interviewed for the film. About 35 minutes of chat animations, headline effects, and other visual effects were designed and rendered by Framestore in New York.

Release

The film previewed in December 2012, and debuted January 21, 2013 at theSundance Film Festival. It is scheduled to be released May 24, 2013 in New York and Los Angeles, and widely in June.

Reception

According to the film's executive producer Jemima Khan, We Steal Secrets was "denounced before seeing" by Assange, who tweeted "an unethical and biased title in the context of pending criminal trials. It is the prosecution’s claim and it is false." Khan asserts the title is based on a quote in the film "from Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA, who told Gibney that the US government was in the business of 'stealing secrets' from other countries".

In the UK Guardian, Jeremy Kay gave the film 3 of 5 stars, noting that though the film explored facts and themes thoroughly and thoughtfully, and provided "insightful commentary" from government, media, and Wikileaks insiders, the film revealed little about Assange, who remained unavailable to be interviewed by the director. Kay wrote, "It's probably too soon for a meaningful perspective on the WikiLeaks saga."

Hollywood Reporter writer David Rooney found the film to be a "tremendously fascinating story told with probing insight and complexity." In Variety, Peter Debruge found the film "dramatically lacking" a central core conflict, especially when compared with Gibney's previous work. Like Kay in the Guardian, Debruge found Manning's story the most compelling part of the film.

Screen Daily's Anthony Kaufman wrote that the film "lacks the emotional weight" of Gibney’s previous documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, but it has "the same high level of exhaustive research and engaging storytelling". Jordan Smith of IONCinema.com gave the film 4 of 5 stars, Indiewire "Criticwire" criticsAnne Thompson and Ryland Aldrich each graded the film "A-".

Response from Wikileaks

Wikileaks published a putative transcript of the film, annotated with comments, asserted to be corrections, by Wikileaks. Director Gibney responded that the transcript was incomplete, lacked Bradley Manning's words, and was from an unreleased, incomplete version of the film.

See also

• The Fifth Estate, an upcoming film starringBenedict Cumberbatch as Assange.

References

1. ^ We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks. Sundance Film Festival. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
2. "We Steal Secrets - The Story Of WikiLeaks(15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
3. ^ Debruge, Peter (January 28, 2013). "Film Reviews:Sundance:We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (Documentary)". Variety. Archived from the original on 2013-03-01. Retrieved March 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. ^ Kay, Jeremy (January 23, 2013). "Sundance film festival 2013: We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks". Guardian (UK). Retrieved March 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
5. ^ Kaufman, Anthony (January 22, 2013). "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks". ScreenDaily.com. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
6. "WikiLeaks-Jigsaw: We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileakslog". Cryptome. January 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
7. "Work:We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks". Framestore. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
8. Cieply, Michael (December 19, 2012). "'We Steal Secrets' Is First of WikiLeaks Films". The New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
9. "We Steal Secrets will be released May 24". Jigsaw Productions. February 25, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013
10. "Gibney's WikiLeaks doc gets release date". Variety. February 22, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013
11. ^ Khan, Jemima (February 6, 2013). "Jemima Khan on Julian Assange: how the Wikileaks founder alienated his allies". New Statesman. Retrieved March 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
12. Wikileaks (January 21, 2013)."'We Steal Secrets': an unethical... ". Twitter.com. Retrieved March 2, 2013
13. Rooney, David (January 23, 2013). "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Sundance Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
14. Smith, Jordan M. (January 31, 2013). "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks / 2013 Sundance Review". Ioncinema.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
15. ^ "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks: Criticwire". Indiewire. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
16. "WikiLeaks releases transcript of critical US film". Inquirer News. INQUIRER.net. May 25, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
17. "Annotated Transcript of "We Steal Secrets" by Alex Gibney". WikiLeaks. May 24, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
18. Zakarin, Jordan (May 25, 2013). "Alex Gibney Blasts WikiLeaks, Accuses Group Of 'Selectively Editing' Transcript Of His Film". BuzzFeed, Inc. Retrieved May 25, 2013.

External links

• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks at IMDb
• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks at Rotten Tomatoes

• 2013 films
• WikiLeaks
• 2010s documentary films
• American films
• American documentary films
• English-language films
• Films directed by Alex Gibney
• Films about freedom of expression
• Independent films