Summary
The film examines the efforts of Jacob Appelbaum to advocate for online privacy, the accusations of sexual misconduct against him, his involvement in exposing government surveillance programs, and how this affected his career as a former collaborator with WikiLeaks.
Review of the film
A controversial hacker and former Wikileaks associate is the subject of an undisclosed documentary that will be shown for possible buyers on September 10th.
Jacob Appelbaum stars in “Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Appelbaum” by Canadian director Jamie Kastner (“The Skyjacker’s Tale”). Variety reviewed an almost complete version of the movie.
Kastner made it while being near him the American has been in self-exile in Berlin since 2016 over two years across Germany, Austria, Israel, Canada and America; it is a multi-leveled study on secrecy vis-a-vis transparency within ethics inside celebrity under #MeToo environment.
In 2010 he worked alongside Julian Assange and Edward Snowden with WikiLeaks revealing controversial government surveillance programs thus becoming one among many symbols championing civil rights concerning privacy. He was accused by multiple women of harassment, assault or intimidation leading to his resignation from Tor Project which promotes anonymous communication online.
This incident polarized defenders for human rights. However, Applebaum denies all allegations though TOR claimed having found strong proof showing sexual impropriety had taken place without giving specific examples while The Guardian later reported contradictions between different accounts along with hidden motives behind them according their investigation results.
According to Mr. Kastner who spoke exclusively to Variety ahead its screening at TIFF: “There are indeed certain very disturbing charges leveled against Applebaum but what luck did I have? None other than two investigative journalists that were covering these stories more comprehensively than anyone else they spoke virtually everyone involved came onto my documentary film.”
“Never before had I ever seen portrayed hacker communities such as these ones within mainstream documentaries where persons engaged in acts of rebellion intermingled freely with intelligence agents from various countries.”
Appelbaum appeared previously in Laura Poitras’s Oscar-winning documentary about Edward Snowden named “Citizenfour”(2014) as well as another Poitras work on Julian Assange titled “Risk”(2016).
Aside from Mitch Altman who is a co-founder of Noisebridge hacker space and Margaret Ratner Kunstler an attorney specializing in civil liberties cases; among other guest stars interviewed by Jamie Kastner for this particular project were hackers such as Jacob Appelbaum himself and his lawyer Tor Ekeland.
“This film does not aim to whitewash anyone. It instead tells the tale of what was once an unprecedented political community within our midst caught off guard by changing times. And while it may appear that way at first sight, I’d argue all over again that Applebaum plays no less than major part representing different opinions people hold on these matters”
The movie is the earliest of Kastner’s following “There Are No Fakes” in 2019, which earned him a nomination for the Canadian Screen Award. The item was an investigative feature that led to a major police inquiry into Aboriginal art forgery in Ontario. Many people were arrested and sued as a result.
“Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Appelbaum” was financed by the Canada Media Fund, the Rogers Cable Network Fund, and the OMDC among other Canadian tax credits. Canuck TV rights belong to CBC while Reservoir Docs’ Anaïs Clanet will handle international sales except in all other territories.
The film was written, directed and produced through Cave 7 by Kastner himself. Laura Baron Kastner serves as a producer with Michael Hannan editing it; original music composed by Tom Third is also used there.
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