This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood. A spate of major documentary releases have covered the exploits and concerns of activists and those who mean to blow the whistle on powerful government and private interests.
From privacy to human rights abuses, the battle over whistleblowing has never been more important than it is today. Let’s take a look at five notable documentaries on the subject.
Fog of War
If you’re interested in a bit of an older piece of history, Fog of War delves into questions about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It also chooses to give a lot of speaking time to one of the people seen as a villain during the war: former American defense secretary Robert McNamara.
McNamara comes off as thoroughly prepared and also deeply committed to rehabilitating his own image. As the title suggests, the film’s main theme is our inability to see through the “fog of war.”
Citizenfour
Edward Snowden’s flight from U.S. authorities following his disclosure of secrets regarding American spying operations has been big news for a couple years now. It has even attracted attention from names as big as Oliver Stone and his film, Snowden. If you’d prefer to cut to the chase however, Laura Poitras’ documentary, Citizenfour, might be a better choice.
Notably, Poitra is very close to her subject, as she was the first journalist Snowden contacted. If you can keep that in mind, Citizenfour is a great primary source for folks looking to learn more about Snowden’s actions and his subsequent escape from the threat of prosecution. Citizenfour is currently streaming on DirecTV.
The Fifth Estate
Before there was Snowden, there was Julian Assange. Assange is an Australian whose Wikileaks website continues to be a force in the online world of whistleblowing, exposing government and corporate corruption all over the world. It’s worth noting that Assange himself isn’t a fan of the movie about his efforts.
Critics have tended to agree, saying The Fifth Estate trips over itself in the name of balance, ultimately dimming the spotlight it casts on its chosen subject.
The Internet’s Own Boy
One of the more tragic individual stories on this list, this documentary tries to tell the story of Aaron Swartz. A co-founder of the popular website Reddit, Swartz was also an activist fighting to see that taxpayer funded research wasn’t kept away from the people who paid for it. Although the owners of the documents he released never pursued him, the U.S. government did. Rather than fleeing,
Although the owners of the documents he released never pursued him, the U.S. government did. Rather than fleeing, he committed suicide.
Bitter Lake
Bitter Lake is a documentary assembled from mostly unused footage that a BBC cameraman, Adam Curtis, assembled. It’s his story of the War in Afghanistan, but it’s also a story about how the news comes to us and the moments that never make it to our TV sets.
The film’s greatest strength lies in asking hard questions about how long we really need to soak in the details of a news story before it can mean something to us.
The long-form documentary offers a chance to get more familiar with the ideas that drive activists and whistleblowers. It also allows us to see the lengths that corporations and governments will go to suppress the voices of activists.
Whether it’s someone like Snowden who has to flee his homeland or a person like Swartz who saw suicide as the only way out, many people have paid great prices to tell the world their concerns about the human rights, privacy and corruption issues that are so central to the discussion of the world we live in today.
