Laura Poitras’s Risk will have its North American premiere as the Closing Night selection of Art of the Real, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s essential showcase for boundary-pushing nonfiction film, on May 2. The festival opens this Thursday, April 20, with Theo Anthony’s Rat Film.
After laying bare Edward Snowden the man and the myth in her Oscar-winning Citizenfour, Laura Poitras returns to the knotty territory of political truth-telling and international espionage with this years-in-the-making portrait of controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A hero to some, a pariah to others, Assange comes across in this compelling documentary as guarded and inscrutable despite his crusade for complete transparency. Not interested in painting a simple portrait of one man fighting the system, Poitras traces his journey from 2011 all the way through this year’s election, finally admitting in voiceover: “This is not the film I thought I was making.” Significantly updated since its Cannes premiere last May, Risk is a film about principles, power, and human contradiction, and is not to be missed. Poitras will also appear in person for a post-screening discussion.
NEON will release the film theatrically nationwide on May 5th.