Julian Assange’s brother to release bombshell documentary about WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, will release a documentary on the WikiLeaks founder at the Sydney Film Festival.
Confidential
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Filmmaker Gabriel Shipton hopes his new documentary film Ithaka will reveal a new side of his brother, WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
Shipton, who produced the film, will attend its world premiere at Sydney Film Festival on Sunday along with director Ben Lawrence.
“The audience only knows Julian through media headlines,” Shipton said.
“The film is about [Julian’s] family, it’s a story which has never been told before.”
The film follows Assange’s 76-year-old father John’s campaign for justice beginning in 2019 when images of Assange being arrested from the Ecuadorian embassy in London were beamed around the world.
“Over the last two years [John] has been campaigning around the world non-stop,” Shipton said.
“It takes its toll but that’s what this film is about, is how does somebody keep going when you’re up against this adversary? When you’re up against the most powerful force on the planet?”
Assange is facing up to 175 years in prison for his role in the organisation’s release of classified US diplomatic cables and Pentagon files on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, some which revealed war crimes committed by the US.
Assange is in his second year of remand in a maximum security prison, Belmarsh detention centre, in the United Kingdom.
Last week, Assange, 50, appeared via video link during a court appearance to fight extradition to the United States and Shipton saw him for the first time in a year.
“I hadn’t seen Julian since October 2020. He looked like he’s aged five years. Physically, his appearance was shocking,” Shipton said.
Sydney Film Festival kicks off on November 3, 2021.
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