WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, imprisoned in London’s Belmarsh Prison since 2019, is a polarizing figure in many ways and worth discussing about his motives, behaviour, tactics and friends. Did he help Donald Trump save his own skin with the Democratic National Committee email dump? Is he more of a narcissistic hacktivist than a thoughtful whistleblower?
But he is being extradited by the United States to stand trial here, because WikiLeaks releasing war data and messages in Iraq and Afghanistan under the Espionage Act – a conviction that would guarantee him a maximum security sentence for the rest of his life – is something that should let the blood of journalists everywhere is running cold, whether you think of Assange as a journalist or not. Just because he is a publisher, his persecution poses a threat to democracy.
Needless to say, the unsympathetic make the powerful the best examples of maintaining a climate of control, and when the power is government, curtailing press freedom is always in sight. A new documentary, Ithaka, directed by Australian filmmaker Ben Lawrence and produced by Assange’s half-brother Gabriel Shipton, tests one conclusion: Is a defense of Assange then best advocated by brushing aside his presence and emphasizing sympathy on the subject? to show? ?
“Ithaka” focuses on the fight to get Assange out of legal jeopardy through the efforts of his 70-year-old father, John Shipton, and then-fiancé Stella Moris, with whom Assange has two children. (Assange and Morris got married last year.) As they bid their time in the UK and await the London hearing that will decide his extradition status, they travel as needed to gather politicians and organizations from other countries, while attending news coverage in the media entails its own battle. personal from politics and rumor from fact.
Shipton and Moris are indeed characters to look after. They live their lives on an unimaginable line between caring for a loved one whose health and mental health are regularly reported as precarious and needing the strength of their own campaign to find allies. Shipton in particular – who resembles his son’s slenderness, soft-spoken, full of intelligence and pale features – draws us in by the obvious uneasiness he feels as a subject of human concern in a battle centered on his son’s fate. state and the case should. transparency and journalism. Lawrence himself takes a cautious approach to this man-versus-mission issue, showing Shipton briefly with a 6-year-old daughter in vérité footage at a friend’s house in rural England, but otherwise omitting details of Shipton’s family life in Australia .
Meanwhile, Moris is seen looking after her and Assange’s sons, speaking to Assange on the phone (we only occasionally hear snippets of a weak voice) and giving interviews expressing her deep support for Assange’s work and her belief that he is a political prisoner. in danger. The issue of psychological torture is raised in the film by interviewee Nils Melzer, a Swiss lawyer and UN human rights expert, who points to his own initial skepticism in examining Assange’s case as evidence that character bias was a powerful tool to Assange to calm down. . .
Still, “Ithaka” isn’t as effective an advocate as it could be, sometimes feeling caught between a desire to intellectualize with on-screen text and the contextualized story, seeking moments of observation that reveal the pain and the Absorb Convey care. for the Assange family. to crystallize. While Laura Poitras’ flawed but fascinating 2016 film “Risk” struggled admirably with her disillusionment with Assange as a person, “Ithaka”—clearly hoping to be a corrective—has a meandering quality, almost afraid of controversy, that can be discussed. That being as important as a successful prosecution of Assange is an ominous sign for journalism. Humans are complicated, as Shipton rightly argues at one point, but a more spirited, forceful defense could have helped pull “Ithaka” out of its solemn reporting mood.
Source: LA Times