In 2010, WikiLeaks shocked the world when it began publishing US military reports and diplomatic cables, which were leaked to the organization by Army Private Chelsea Manning. Amid these publications, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras went to London to film the work of WikiLeaks’ founding editor Julian Assange and his colleagues as they navigated the backlash from the world’s most powerful government. For over two years, Poitras filmed much of WikiLeaks’ behind-the-scenes operations and many of Assange’s most personal moments. In June 2013, she left Assange to meet with Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald in Hong Kong—experiences documented in her 2014 film Citizenfour—returning to continue filming WikiLeaks for a few months in early 2016. The result is Risk, Poitras’ 91-minute look into the often puzzling world of WikiLeaks.
Risk unfolds in three acts. The first act presents a general perspective on the immediate aftermath of WikiLeaks’ publication of the Manning documents, from Assange’s rise to prominence as a global intellectual to Assange being accused of sexual misconduct by two women in Sweden, a controversy that catalyzes the rest of the WikiLeaks drama. The second act follows Assange as he seeks and receives political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, which Assange feared would ultimately result in his extradition to the US. The third act picks up in 2016, when Poitras returns to London following her Snowden-related hiatus. Here she covers WikiLeaks’ role in publishing documents from the Democratic Party during the 2016 US presidential election and ongoing accusations of sexual assault against Assange and other WikiLeaks personnel. Interestingly, the film narrative never resolves—it simply fizzles out, leaving open the uncertain futures of everyone involved, Poitras included.
Historians and students of journalism will learn much from the film, but it must be watched simultaneously on two registers: as a primary source and as a secondary source.
As a primary source, Risk provides audiences with fascinating insights into the operations of Wikileaks and into the personality and intellect of Assange. While WikiLeaks and Assange are often thought to be synonymous, Poitras’ footage documents the involvement of several WikiLeaks personnel: editor Sarah Harrison, editor Joseph Farrell, journalist Jacob Appelbaum, lawyer Ranata Avila, and lawyer Jennifer Robinson, among others. Harrison is shown assisting Snowden with his attempts to seek asylum in Ecuador; Appelbaum is shown in his role as a digital activist and advocate for Tor. Assange, who carries the most mystique, is shown in intimate settings discussing his principles, strategies, and perspectives regarding a variety of issues. The raw footage of Risk provides distinctive insight into WikiLeaks and the people who made it possible.
As a secondary source, Risk provides audiences with a glimpse into Poitras’ shifting perspective on WikiLeaks. Poitras was drawn to WikiLeaks because she was fascinated by their journalism and, indeed, she was a WikiLeaks supporter as much as she was a WikiLeaks documentarian. But she began to sense a contradiction between her support for WikiLeaks the organization and her concerns about Assange the person. She also became romantically involved with Appelbaum for a short period. When the film was originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016, Poitras presented a cut of the film that was sympathetic to WikiLeaks’ journalistic mission and to Assange’s plight (who had been trapped in the embassy for four years). But when in the summer of 2016, Appelbaum was accused of sexual misconduct and WikiLeaks began publishing email leaks from the US Democratic Party, Poitras put together a new cut of the film, which presents WikiLeaks and its personnel is a less favorable light. It is this second cut of the film—which says more about Poitras than it does about Assange—that was released theatrically and commercially. The film narrative never resolves, therefore, because Poitras remains trapped in the “contradictions” she perceives in WikiLeaks.
Poitras’ Risk is an aesthetically pleasing, intellectually stimulating work of art that provokes many questions: questions about the complex relationships between digital activism, journalism, governmental power, and global military conflict, as well as questions about the ethics of documentary film journalism. Such questions are highly relevant to scholarly and pedagogical concerns. However, because the film presents a US-centric perspective on WikiLeaks—practically ignoring the global scope and impact of its publications—the film plays into the general impression most Americans already have of WikiLeaks, almost to the level of confirmation bias. Thus, the film is best viewed alongside other documentaries on WikiLeaks and related topics, such as Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist’s WikiRebels (2010), Journeyman Pictures’ Sex, Lies, and Julian Assange (2012), Clara López Rubio and Juan Pancorbo’s Hacking Justice (2017), and Tim Travers Hawkins’ XY Chelsea (2019). While Risk reveals some truths about WikiLeaks, it reveals as much truth about its creator.
This review was originally written as a digital media review and submitted to American Journalism.