Since 2007, Wikileaks has been the subject of political rhetoric, water cooler debate, and journalistic scrutiny. In 2013, documentarian Alex Gibey (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) put his lens on the organization - and leaking in general - through the film We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks. With a topic that's already spawned countless think pieces and trolling comments, the question becomes: apart from memorializing these highly-publicized events, what new information or perspective does this documentary offer?
We Steal Secrets doesn't escape the usual "Assange is evil/hypocritical" or "Assange is a martyr" Wikileaks angles, but it does find a focus around the faces behind the organization's 2010 leaks: Julian Assange (Wikileaks head/former hacker) and Bradley Manning (a US Army intelligence analyst who leaked documents related to US diplomacy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Interspersed with commentary about competing ideologies and journalistic standards is the story of two people who have been branded as martyrs or traitors. Assange and Manning's lives are dissected, with friends, associates, former allies, and alleged victims contributing their interpretations of the leakers. Interestingly, the documentary's most powerful material comes from stories by those who played a role in their downfalls. An ex-hacker who turned Manning in (after befriending him and promising confidentiality) highlights Manning's tortured psyche and humanity. An interview with one of the women who alleges that Assange sexually assaulted her changes the context of Assange's crime from CIA conspiracy to personal degradation and the marginalization of a woman's suffering. These interviewees define the leakers as fallible humans, pulling them out of sensational headlines and into (a somewhat) real life. Gibney does an admirable job attempting to flesh out these lives and how their personalities contributed to leaking activities, but the film's attitude towards the leakers comes down to a comment made by ex-Wikileaks employee Daniel Domscheit-Berg. "..... We see Julian as the saviour, as some noble guru, as some new hero or some new pop star or whatever that's going to change all of it. The credit is undue - everybody celebrating Julian as a whistleblower - he is not - Bradley Manning might have been a whistleblower. And if he was, he is the courageous guy." While Gibney temporarily ignores simple condemnation or praise, he ultimately passes judgment and removes a bit of these characters' complexity.