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Flavorwire Interview: ‘We Steal Secrets’ Director Alex Gibney on Julian Assange and the Wikileaks Backlash to His Film

By Jason Bailey on

In his riveting new documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, director Alex Gibney (the prolific Oscar winner behind Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer) tells two stories: the thriller-like ascendency of the organization and the troubling questions it asks about government transparency, and the crumbling of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which plays like something out of Greek tragedy — the transformation of an admirable idealist to a paranoid propagandist, injecting his own legal woes into the lofty aims of his organization, and conflating them. Gibney was unable to procure an interview with Assange; “Julian wanted money,” Gibney explains in the film, though Assange was willing to exchange his interview for information on the other people Gibney was talking to. The filmmaker refused, and We Steal Secrets has been under fire from Wikileaks supporters since it was unveiled at Sundance last January. I asked Gibney about that backlash, the importance of the story, and related troubling matters of transparency in the Obama administration. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields turns 50 today. Celebrate with this excellent live version of “Only Tomorrow.” Director Richard Linklater has built his career on Gen-X self-examination; here are his works ranked from worst to best. Looking through the lens of “transcendental black metal” movement, the A.V. Club examines the… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

Depending on who you’re asking, Reggie Watts’ shot-for shot video cover of “Never Gonna Give You Up” is amazingly accurate (and hilarious). Thanks to NPR, we got a look at 100 behind-the-scenes photos of 100 classic films. This Neatorama piece gives us the inside story behind a legendary tale… Read More

Film

Despite His Protests, Zach Braff’s Cannes Deal Violates the Spirit of His Kickstarter Campaign

By Jason Bailey on

It’s not like anyone was crossing their fingers and wishing upon a star to talk about Zach Braff and Kickstarter again, but here we go. “Zach Braff’s Kickstarter Film Lands Full Financing,” reads the headline at The Hollywood Reporter, which got all the details of Braff’s Cannes deal with Worldview Entertainment to “fund much of Wish I Was Here,” the Garden State follow-up that Braff already raised $2.6 million for via the crowd-funding site. It’s a deal that seems to confirm the worst grumblings about the project (that it was a publicity stunt, that it was a vanity move, that it was a gross exploitation of crowd funding by a multimillionaire). And though the Reporter has updated its piece with softer language concerning the full extent of Worldview’s participation, the new controversy surrounding the project raises further questions about exactly how these hybrid Kickstarter/Hollywood projects should work — and who will benefit from them. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

There’s plenty of controversy surrounding Zoe Saldana’s supposed bisexuality today. We posted the Flavorwire take earlier today, but we also suggest checking out AfterEllen.com’s super-interesting discussion on the underlying issues. We giggled over this video of people trying (and mostly failing) to explain The Great Gatsby plot. We followed… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

Some things, like this Great Gatsby/Mean Girls meme mash-up, are just perfect. There’s a Robocop statue going up in Detroit, because that’s just what the city of Detroit has been clamoring for. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is the best thing to happen to space travel in a long time; we celebrated his… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: The Day’s Best Links

By Lillian Ruiz on

So here’s what we’ve learned today: For starters, even Beyoncé’s coiffing standards are tightly controlled. Jay-Z is either a time traveler or a zombie from 1930s Harlem. Never one to be left behind, Kanye heads to the 1970s for the Anchorman sequel. Turns out that our favorite movie villains enjoy a… Read More

Web

Do Celebrity-Backed Projects Hurt Kickstarter’s Reputation?

By Tyler Coates on

When Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell announced last month that a movie version of the cult show was in the works — via Kickstarter — the internet exploded with excitement. The project hit its $2 million goal in just 11 hours, setting a record on the four-year-old fundraising site. The project was seen as a way to gauge the audience interest rather than a chance to fully fund the production, although Thomas and Bell were able to pull together $5.7 million from Veronica Mars fans. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: The Day’s Best Links

By Lillian Ruiz on

Today, Geekosystem broke down the origins of every Saul Bass reference in the Google Doodle celebrating his birthday. Film.com posted the irreverent animated short “Private SNAFU” by famed Warner Bros. artist Bob Clampett. With the regular TV season winding down, A.V. Club gave an in-depth look at the writing process for… Read More

Web

7 Totally Easy Steps to a Spoiler-Free Life

By Jason Bailey on

Jennie Lamere is a 17-year-old computer coder from Nashua, New Hampshire, and the focus of a fascinating article over at Mother Jones. It seems that late last month, Ms. Lamere was the only woman among the 80 competitors at TVnext Hack 2013 in Boston, where programmers and coders were charged with creating apps and programs to enrich the viewing experience. But Lamere won the whole shebang with her Twivo software, which allows users to block mentions of selected TV shows and their characters until they’ve had a chance to watch that DVR-ed episode of Game of Thrones. The whole thing is sort of awesome, a big thumbs-up for developers of both Lamere’s age and sex. And, of course, it is a decisive victory for the Spoiler-Free Rights movement. But does her app go far enough? … Read More