From: Consortium News
June 1, 2013
With Private Bradley Manning’s leak trial about to start and with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange still holed up in the Ecuador Embassy in London, “We Steal Secrets,” a new big-budget documentary purports to explain the controversy but has more the look of a hit job, says Danny Schechter.
By Danny Schechter
Every documentary filmmaker begins with deciding on the story to be told, and, then, how to sustain audience interest. If your goal is to inform the public or take a stand on an important issue by explaining its origins and exposing wrongdoers then you go one way. If your goal is to entertain and shroud your motives by exploring murky personality contradictions, you go another.
“We Steal Secrets,” Alex Gibney’s latest documentary (or is it a docudrama?), skillfully made with the backing of a major media company tries to do both. Ironically, that company, Comcast-Universal, owners of NBC, is at the same time having a major success with another movie, “Fast and Furious6,” glamorizing a criminal gang that relies on speedy cars. MORE
News Dissector Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org and blogs at news dissector.net. He is also an independent filmmaker. Comments todissector@mediachannel.org.
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