Daniel Ellsberg

Acting

Daniel Ellsberg

Born — Died

1931-04-07 — 2023-06-16

Place of birth

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

30 titles

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…

Known for

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Colbert Report poster
7.0

The Colbert Report is an American satirical late night television program. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report is a spin-off from and counterpart to The Daily Show that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.

The Colbert Report

2005

American Experience poster
6.5

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

American Experience

1988

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

Democracy Now! poster
6.9

A United States daily progressive, nonprofit, independently syndicated program of news, analysis, and opinion.

Democracy Now!

2001

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War poster
8.0

With firsthand accounts and access to prominent figures around the world, this comprehensive docuseries explores the Cold War and its aftermath.

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

2024

Film credits

2020s · 5 titles

The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream poster
NR

The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary, narrated by Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap), tracing the rise and fall of Nixon from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 to his resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War. The film draws on hundreds of hours of TV news taped off-air by the Nixon White House to tell the untold story of the Watergate burglars. How did tapping the wrong phone with a bug that didn't work lead to their arrests and Nixon's resignation? It also explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke a fevered political landscape of culture wars, dirty tricks, paranoia and assassination.

The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream

2026

The Six Billion Dollar Man poster
NR

WikiLeaks 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

Ithaka poster
8.5

The 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

The Trust Fall: Julian Assange poster
6.0

Examining 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

The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous poster
NR

The 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

2010s · 6 titles

Risk poster
6.6

Capturing 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

Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words poster
7.2

From 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

War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State poster
7.8

War 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

Our Nixon poster
6.4

Never 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

Julian Assange: A Modern Day Hero? poster
NR

Documentary on Julian Assange, Wikileaks and more.

Julian Assange: A Modern Day Hero?

2011

Third Party President: Citizen Rocky poster
NR

This 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

2000s · 3 titles

1970s · 4 titles

Hearts and Minds poster
7.6

Many 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

The Memory of Justice poster
6.8

This 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

Doomsday Chronicles poster
10.0

Plagued 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

No artwork available
NR

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

Undated · 1 titles

Series credits

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Colbert Report poster
7.0

The Colbert Report is an American satirical late night television program. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report is a spin-off from and counterpart to The Daily Show that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.

The Colbert Report

2005

American Experience poster
6.5

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

American Experience

1988

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

Democracy Now! poster
6.9

A United States daily progressive, nonprofit, independently syndicated program of news, analysis, and opinion.

Democracy Now!

2001

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War poster
8.0

With firsthand accounts and access to prominent figures around the world, this comprehensive docuseries explores the Cold War and its aftermath.

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

2024

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War poster
8.0

With firsthand accounts and access to prominent figures around the world, this comprehensive docuseries explores the Cold War and its aftermath.

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

2024

Whistleblowers: The Untold Stories poster
10.0

Showcasing the heroic deeds in and from every aspect of government and society, in a common quest to make the world a better place, free of corruption, discrimination and civil rights violations from around the globe!

Whistleblowers: The Untold Stories

2011

Kissinger poster
8.0

This two-part biography offers an incisive portrait of Henry Kissinger, the enigmatic powerbroker who served in the topmost echelons of American diplomacy. Whether celebrated or reviled, Kissinger’s contradictions reflect those at the heart of America’s foreign policy during the second half of the 20th century, a period in which America became the unchallenged superpower in the world yet often pursued policy at odds with its own highest ideals.By examining his life up to and throughout his tortured relationship with President Richard Nixon, Kissinger endeavors to understand precisely what drove his relentless drive for power. It is a story of deep contradictions — of Kissinger’s obsession with securing American supremacy, staving off nuclear war, and checking the power of our enemies, even while consorting with dictators and tolerating widespread violation of human rights.

Kissinger

2025

Behind the camera