Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in The Six Billion Dollar Man [Sunshine Press Productions}

THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN
Directed by Eugene Jarecki
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆☆

JULIAN Assange’s public persona was often painted as if he wanted to be the story, rather than the extraordinary information Wikileaks were handed. And then he was accused of sexual assaults, and it seemed the assumptions of vile male arrogance, many mainstream media promoted, were valid. He was accused by journalists from The Guardian as being irritating and full of it.

There was the very real threat that if he headed to Sweden to be interviewed over the allegations, he would then face extradition to the USA. Many media outlets suggested if he hadn’t done anything wrong, why not leave the Ecuadorian embassy and front it up – ignoring the fact that he could then be sent on to face the wrath of a belligerent US government, hellbent on taking revenge against a messenger whose revelations on war crimes they did not like.

These assumptions about Assange and Wikileaks are tackled in this five-star documentary, and the Assange story becomes a fearsome warning about how information is managed and sent out – one of the most important topics facing us today, as the world burns and we are lied to about who is responsible and what we can do about it.

This cleverly crafted film is like a modern All The President’s Men, a genuine thriller playing out in real time. It destroys oft-peddled myths. For example, the damning idea that Wikileaks published swathes of unredacted information is not true – instead, it was a whistleblowing website in the US, who used the password published as a chapter heading in a book by Guardian journalists Dabvid Leigh and Luke Haridng (which, by the way, is worth reading as a counterbalance to this film).

Eugene Jarecki enjoys access to unseen footage and brilliant interviews (including a Wikileaks staffer, who was paid by the FBI to spy on Assange).

While Assange’s motives are clear and admirable, little things still grate – hearing him refuse to give a receptionist his surname comes over as rude and arrogant.

He remains a polarising figure to some, but forget the person: who cares what he is like? That’s not the story, nor does it justify the 10 years of confinement he suffered. Wikileaks was a revolutionary way to leak information in the public interest. Instead of late-night meetings with Deepthroat in a car park, whistleblowers now had the means to show what was being done in our name.

Sadly – and maybe because of Assange’s character – the focus was switched from not the horrendous war crimes Wikileaks exposed but how they were leaked in the first place.

This doc lays bare the facts and carries a chilling warning about how entrenched powers set the information agenda to the detriment of us all.