New Australian film on the plight of the most famous political prisoner of our time - Australian journalist Julian Assange

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

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - A powerful new Australian documentary film, The Trust Fall: Julian Assange, will premiere in Brisbane on 16 January.
 
The film tells the story of Julian Assange - the most famous political prisoner and internationally-awarded journalist of our time – who exposed US war crimes and government corruption on his whistleblower WikiLeaks website.
 
Charged under the antiquated US Espionage Act 1917with the threat of a 175-year prison sentence, Julian is facing his final UK appeal against imminent extradition to the United States, … all for revealing the truth.
 
Filmed over two years on three continents and in ten cities, The Trust Fall: Julian Assange features high-profile Assange supporters and global experts; Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, activists John Pilger and Tariq Ali, journalists Mary Kostakidis, Chris Hedges, Dean Yates and Stefania Maurizi, Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson, government leaders Jill Stein, Sen. Peter Whish-Wilson and Sen. David Shoebridge and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer among others. It also includes heart wrenching conversations with Julian’s own family; Stella Assange, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton.
 
The Trust Fall: Julian Assange is narrated by Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, rapper M.I.A and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello.

The film is the directorial debut of Australian filmmaker Kym Staton - founder and director of Films For Change.

“This is a film about a man who risked everything to bring the truth to light,” says Kym.
 
“In 2010, I witnessed the ‘Collateral Murder’ video on the nightly news. At the time I didn’t make sense of it. I had no idea of the significance of this footage, who Julian Assange or WikiLeaks were.”
 
“Britain has given the go-ahead for his US extradition, but his legal team has been trying to overturn that decision. The final appeal will happen in the UK High Court on 20 & 21 Feb. 20-21. Julian’s wife Stella describes it as ‘Day X, his last chance before being handed over to the Americans and potentially disappearing forever’.”
 
Already, The Trust Fall: Julian Assange has won several awards including Best Emerging Director at Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Best First-Time Director at the Cine Paris Film Festival and official selection at Warsaw Film Festival.
 
Julian has now been detained without conviction for 13 years and 17 days, including under asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy (6yrs, 9mths & 25days) and then forcibly-removed to the high-security HM Belmarsh Prison (4yrs, 8mths & 27days).
 
The distributor of the film is Journeyman Pictures in London.