Films about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
Ahead of the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of WikiLeaks on October 4, here's a selection of documentaries, features and dramatisation of two decades of fearless publishing.
The Six Billion Dollar Man — Eugene Jarecki — 2025 A feature documentary tracing Assange, WikiLeaks and the long-running US case against him, completed after his release and return to Australia in 2024. Winner of the 2025 Golden Globe and the Cannes L'Œil d'Or. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34968474/
Faultlines – The Imprisonment of Julian Assange – Al Jazeera – 2023 Fault Lines examines what Assange’s case says about press freedom and the consequences of publishing state secrets. https://www.aljazeera.com/video/fault-lines/2023/3/20/the-imprisonment-of-julian-assange
Underground: The Julian Assange Story — Robert Connolly — 2012 A dramatised account of Assange’s teenage years as hacker “Mendax” in late-1980s Melbourne, starring Alex Williams as the young Assange. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357453/
Citizenfour — Laura Poitras — 2014 This Oscar-winning documentary records Edward Snowden’s NSA disclosures in real time and includes Assange and WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison within the wider story of surveillance, leaking and Snowden’s escape from Hong Kong. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4044364
The War You Don’t See — John Pilger & Alan Lowery — 2010 Pilger’s documentary about propaganda, war and failures of mainstream journalism features Assange discussing WikiLeaks as a means for insiders within powerful institutions to inform the public directly. https://johnpilger.com/the-war-you-dont-see/
The World Tomorrow - Julian Assange and Quick Roll Productions — 2012 A political TV interview series created and hosted by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, featuring incisive and sometimes unconventional conversations with dissidents, thinkers, political leaders and rebels from around the world. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlGSlkijht5hLuZGqW--jbFPl99GqU2Nl
The World Tomorrow: Cypherpunks, Parts 1 & 2 Assange talks with Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann about cryptography, mass surveillance, state power and whether the internet will become an instrument of emancipation or control. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlqOmAOqEmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buBbNyfFB80&list=PLlGSlkijht5hLuZGqW--jbFPl99GqU2Nl&index=9
The World Tomorrow: Imran Khan Assange interviews Imran Khan about Pakistan, US power, the war on terror and Khan’s emergence as a major political force; the programme aired on 19 June 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw4KxdUMiL0
The World Tomorrow: Hassan Nasrallah For the first episode of his interview series, Assange interviewed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah from their respective locations by video link—the first English-language interview with Nasrallah in more than a decade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M1fHfKenTM
The War on Journalism: The Case of Julian Assange — Juan Passarelli — 2020 A short documentary examining the Assange prosecution as a press-freedom case and the implications of extraditing a publisher for obtaining and publishing classified information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVoUPnXqvNE
Assange and Wikileaks – Dateline – 2010 In this 2010 segment, Dateline’s Mark Davis interviews Julian Assange. For the first time, Assange talks about his background in Australia, his previous hacking activities there, the charges he faced, and his role at WikiLeaks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M0FnvAPJI0
Kidnap or Kill – Al Jazeera - 2021 The CIA’s plot against WikiLeaks: why isn’t the CIA’s plan to kidnap Julian Assange making more headlines? https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-listening-post/2021/10/2/kidnap-or-kill-the-cia-plot-against-wikileaks-julian-assange
Digital Dissidents – Al Jazeera - 2016 Digital Dissidents: The warriors of the digital age fighting side by side for transparency and privacy in the digital world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s04-7DB2sMM
Hacking Justice – Clara López Rubio and Juan Pancorbo - 2017 Since he took on the case in 2012, defending Julian Assange has put judge Baltasar Garzón's talent and ability to the test. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6654984/
Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden — John Goetz & Poul-Erik Heilbuth — 2015 A documentary reconstruction of the international hunt for Edward Snowden that connects his escape with WikiLeaks and the organisation’s efforts to help him secure asylum. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477936/
Assange: The Truth They've been Hiding from You - Naomi Brockwell - 2023 Naomi Brockwell exposes 6 lies about Assange that have been deliberately used to distract from what is one of the most important precedent-setting cases for freedom of speech of our generation. If there’s one thing you should take away from this, it’s that most of what you think you know about Assange is false. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl8XIr5vxhM
Mediastan - A WikiLeaks Road Movie - Johannes Wahlström – 2013 Documentary film about a group of WikiLeaks staff travelling through Central Asia finding local partners to publish sensitive material about the local area from the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leaks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n0Yu7bYF9E
Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war – Can Dündar, Deutsche Welle – 2024 On June 25, 2024, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to walk free following a deal with the US government. Does this surprising end to the publisher’s many years of criminal prosecution and imprisonment signal a positive outcome for press freedom? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYIyq6tpQ-4&t=407s
