NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Look Media announced today that Laura Poitras' new feature film Risk will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival's 48th Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs). This dramatic documentary with a cypherpunk spirit reveals the stakes and opportunities of truth-telling and finds Poitras embedded with Julian Assange over the past five years. Risk is her highly anticipated follow-up to Citizenfour, Academy Award® winner for Best Documentary. Risk is produced by Praxis Films in association with First Look Media and Field of Vision. World sales will be handled by Josh Braun of Submarine.
Risk executive producer Sam Esmail, creator, executive producer and writer of award-winning television drama Mr. Robot, says, "Laura's riveting and perceptive new film leaves you with relentless introspection. Risk is a fresh take on the renegades, the cypherpunks, the risk takers. As much as I've read about the captivating Assange throughout the years, this beautifully rendered portrait managed to deepen my understanding in unexpected ways."
Adam Pincus, First Look Media executive vice president, Programming & Content, says, "At First Look Media, we're thrilled to follow up our support of Spotlight with Laura's latest, an unprecedented view into a story we think we know, and find here in an exciting new light."
Risk immerses us in the lives of Julian Assange and the technologists, volunteers, and reporters behind WikiLeaks. In the last decade, WikiLeaks has revolutionized journalism, publishing documents whose revelations helped fuel the Arab Spring and exposed corporate spying. Poitras goes behind the scenes - into asylum with Assange and into exile with the WikiLeaks team as they face legal challenges and go to sometimes dangerous lengths to defend whistleblowers.
In addition to Sam Esmail, executive producers are David Menschel, AJ Schnack, Charlotte Cook, and Josh Braun. Directed by Poitras, Risk is produced by Brenda Coughlin (Dirty Wars) and edited by Melody London (Heart of a Dog). The film is made possible in part by Vital Projects Fund, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund, and the Bertha BRITDOC Documentary Journalism Fund.
Laura Poitras
Laura Poitras is a filmmaker, journalist and artist. CITIZENFOUR (2014), the third installment of her Post-9/11 Trilogy, won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary, along with awards from the British Film Academy, Independent Spirit Awards, Directors Guild of America, German Filmpreis, and others. Part one of the trilogy, My Country, My Country (2006), about the U.S. occupation of Iraq, was nominated for an Academy Award. Part two, The Oath (2010), focused on Guantanamo and the War on Terror, and was nominated for two Emmy awards. Astro Noise, her first solo museum exhibition, is at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York through May 1, 2016. She has received many honors for her work, including a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Peabody Award.
First Look Media | Field of Vision
First Look Media is a new-model media company devoted to supporting independent voices across all platforms, from investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking to smart, provocative entertainment. eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar launched First Look in 2013 with the belief that independent perspectives are vital to a vibrant culture and thriving democracy. First Look operates as both a studio and digital media company. Field of Vision is the visual journalism unit of First Look Media and presents short-form documentaries and series through the lenses of top filmmakers. Since its launch in September 2015, Field of Vision has commissioned more than twenty-five films, many premiering at festivals worldwide, including Sundance, New York, SXSW, and Rotterdam.
