
Acting
Daniel Ellsberg
Born 1931-04-07 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers. In January 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering (committed by the same people who were later involved in the Watergate scandal), and his defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. dismissed all charges against Ellsberg in May 1973. Ellsberg was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He was also known for having formulated an important example in decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox; for his extensive studies on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy; and for voicing support for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his "profound humanism and exceptional moral courage". He was a founding member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Ellsberg died of cancer in 2023. Description above from the Wikipedia article Daniel Ellsberg, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
6.8This exceptional, disturbing, and thought-provoking two-part documentary compares the atrocities committed by the Nazis as revealed during the Nuremberg trials to those committed by the French in Algeria and those done by the Americans in Vietnam. The four-hour epic questions the right of any country to pass self-righteous moral judgements upon the actions of another country.
The Memory of Justice
1976
7.6Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.
Hearts and Minds
1974
NRWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange battled extradition to the U.S., where he could've faced a lengthy sentence for publishing classified documents. His case, centered on press freedom, took unexpected twists as it unfolded.
The Six Billion Dollar Man
2025
NRThe enigmatic nature of the Nixon presidency combined comparatively progressive legislative initiatives with a flagrant abuse of presidential power and the public trust. His achievements in expanding peaceful relations with China and the Soviet Union stand in stark contrast with his continuation of the war in Vietnam. Finally brought down by scandal and duplicity, his administration did much to erode the citizenry's faith in government.
Nixon
1990
8.5The campaign to free Julian Assange takes on intimate dimensions in this documentary portrait of an elderly man’s fight to save his son. Arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a figure pretty much everybody has an opinion about; perhaps more importantly, he serves as the emblem of an international arm wrestle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes. For his family members who face the prospect of losing him forever to the abyss of the US justice system, however, this David-and-Goliath struggle is personal – and, with his health declining in a British maximum-security prison and American government prosecutors pulling out all the stops to extradite him, the clock is ticking.
Ithaka
2022
10.0Plagued by wars, pollution and natural disasters, is man destined to self-destruction before the 20th century folds? Or can he escape the total annihilation the future may hold?
Doomsday Chronicles
1979
7.8War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State highlights four cases where whistleblowers noticed government wrong-doing and took to the media to expose the fraud and abuse. It exposes the surprisingly worsening and threatening reality for whistleblowers and the press. The film includes interviews with whistleblowers Michael DeKort, Thomas Drake, Franz Gayl and Thomas Tamm and award-winning journalists like David Carr, Lucy Dalglish, Glenn Greenwald, Seymour Hersh, Michael Isikoff, Bill Keller, Eric Lipton, Jane Mayer, Dana Priest, Tom Vanden Brook and Sharon Weinberger.
War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State
2013
7.2From 1971 to 1973, Richard Nixon secretly recorded his private conversations in the White House. This film chronicles the content of those tapes, which include Nixon's conversations on the war in Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers leak, his Supreme Court appointments, and more--while also exposing shocking statements he made about women, people of color, Jews, and the media.
Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words
2014
AXIS OF EVIL is an experimental-feature-documentary-essay that features interviews with sixteen artists, scholars, and activists, including Howard Zinn, Daniel Ellsberg, Bernardine Dohrn, Martha Nussbaum, and others, talking about the concept of evil, its usefulness as a framework for US foreign policy, and evils that they've encountered in their lives. The interviews are illustrated with postage stamp art, archival footage, and other elements that interact with, illustrate, and comment on the statements of the interviewees.
Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam
2004
6.5You Can't Be Neutral documents the life and times of the historian, activist and author of the best selling classic "A People's History of the United States". Featuring rare archival materials, interviews with Howard Zinn as well as colleagues and friends including Noam Chomsky, Marian Wright Edelman, Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden and Alice Walker.
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
2004
6.6Capturing the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with unprecedented access, director Laura Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle in a documentary portrait of power, betrayal, truth and sacrifice.
Risk
2017
NRThis feature length high definition documentary follows one of the Nation's most controversial yet progressive leaders, 2012 Presidential candidate and Former two-term Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.
Third Party President: Citizen Rocky
2018
6.0Examining the meaning and significance of the insights that WikiLeaks shared with the world, the resulting behaviour of the governments involved, the extraordinary personal risk taken by Assange, and the wider fundamental issues around press freedom that affect all of us and our right to know.
The Trust Fall: Julian Assange
2024
7.4"The Most Dangerous Man in America" is the story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an "imperial" presidency – answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people – in order to help end the Vietnam War.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
2009
6.4Never before seen Super 8 home movies filmed by Richard Nixon's closest aides - and convicted Watergate conspirators - offer a surprising and intimate new look into his Presidency.
Our Nixon
2013
Follows Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg’s efforts to raise an alarm about the threat of a devastating nuclear war and his concerns about the United States and Russia planning for a globally destructive nuclear attack that could be launched by accident, or intentionally. Ellsberg explains the “institutional madness” of American nuclear war plans and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous. The documentary will trace Ellsberg’s journey from being a Cold War hawk to becoming an anti-nuclear weapons activist, a stance he held right up to his death. Ellsberg warns that the nuclear weapons arsenals of the U.S. and Russia are still very much a threat to global peace and that an all-out nuclear war remains capable of being launched from missile silos or submarines on a few minutes’ notice.
How to Stop a Nuclear War
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NRThe Berrigan Brothers, Daniel and Philip were Catholic priests dedicated to non violent resistance of the violent policies of the United States government. They rose to prominence as outspoken opponents of the Vietnam War.
The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous
2020
NRDocumentary on Julian Assange, Wikileaks and more.
Julian Assange: A Modern Day Hero?
2011
Police Off Campus! Was produced and directed by the students of the UCLA Motion Picture and Television Division following a large protest at UCLA on May 5, 1970, in which students were mobilized murder of white students at Kent State by police the day earlier (May 4, 1970), as well as the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, the ongoing war in Vietnam, and the political repression of Black Panthers including the firing of Angela Davis from UCLA and the incarceration of Bobby Seale in connection with the Chicago 8 and the New Haven Black Panther trials. Police came onto UCLA’s campus and began beating and shooting at students. The police’s violence mobilized students to strike and hold a moratorium, halting coursework and business as usual for the University. Television students shot footage on ½” open reel video tape, or the Portapack Camera, the first commercially available portable video camcorder.
Police Off Campus!
1970