BBFF2023 - The Trust Fall: Julian Assange

The Byron Bay International Film Festival returns to the Brunswick Picture House with the NSW Premiere of The Trust Fall: Julian Assange followed by a Q&A with the director Kym Staton (Films for Change).

 

Despite being detained, silenced and hidden from public view in maximum security Belmarsh Prison, multi-award-winning Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange has become one of the loudest voices for free speech of our times. He risked everything to bring truth to light.

The disclosures of WikiLeaks and Assange from 2010 onwards ignited a firestorm of controversy and a relentless ongoing pursuit by the most powerful empire on the planet.

The Trust Fall: Julian Assange examines the meaning and significance of the insights that WikiLeaks shared with the world, the resulting behaviour of the governments involved, the extraordinary personal risk taken by Assange, and the wider fundamental issues around press freedom that affect all of us and our right to know.

 

Filmed over two years on three continents and in ten cities, the film features an array of luminaries including Daniel Ellsberg, John Pilger, Tariq Ali and Chris Hedges, with the insights of experts including Jennifer Robinson, Jill Stein, Stefania Maurizi and Nils Melzer, in addition to reflections of Assange’s family including Stella Assange, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton.

 

Examining the motives of this peace activist and innovator, viewers are invited to embark on a journey of understanding, where the circumstances are unprecedented, and the destination unexpected.

 

If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth - Julian Assange

 

Director: Kym Staton

Producers: Kym Staton & Natalia Minana

A Films For Change Original Film

Editors: Endre Kvia & Richard Frankl

Year: 2023. Duration: 133 mins

Age restriction: R for 18+. Includes graphic violence.