George Clooney and Grant Heslov have joined Austrian director Friedrich Moser’s feature documentary “How to Build a Truth Engine” as executive producers through their Smokehouse Pictures banner.
The docu, now in the final stages of filming, tackles investigative journalism and the fight against fake news. Moser follows award-winning journalists from the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Icij, and Austria’s weeklies Falter and Profil in their efforts to uncover corruption, disinformation, and war crimes. Produced by Robert Rippberger and Amina Bayou, it tracks teams who are developing artificial intelligence software for real-time detection of conspiracy theories, fake news and disinformation.
A former TV journalist, Moser founded Vienna-based Blue + Green Communication production company in 2001. He last directed “Money Bots,” released last year, writing and directing the documentary “Beer! A Love Story” in 2019. Other documentaries include “A Good American,” a film about Bill Binney and the Nsa that premiered...
The docu, now in the final stages of filming, tackles investigative journalism and the fight against fake news. Moser follows award-winning journalists from the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Icij, and Austria’s weeklies Falter and Profil in their efforts to uncover corruption, disinformation, and war crimes. Produced by Robert Rippberger and Amina Bayou, it tracks teams who are developing artificial intelligence software for real-time detection of conspiracy theories, fake news and disinformation.
A former TV journalist, Moser founded Vienna-based Blue + Green Communication production company in 2001. He last directed “Money Bots,” released last year, writing and directing the documentary “Beer! A Love Story” in 2019. Other documentaries include “A Good American,” a film about Bill Binney and the Nsa that premiered...
- 10/14/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Start with the initial headline, in the story the Washington Post “broke” on September 18th:
Trump’S Communications With Foreign Leader Are Part Of Whistleblower Complaint That Spurred Standoff Between Spy Chief And Congress, Former Officials Say
The unnamed person at the center of this story sure didn’t sound like a whistleblower. Our intelligence community wouldn’t wipe its ass with a real whistleblower.
Americans who’ve blown the whistle over serious offenses by the federal government either spend the rest of their lives overseas, like Edward Snowden, end up in jail,...
Trump’S Communications With Foreign Leader Are Part Of Whistleblower Complaint That Spurred Standoff Between Spy Chief And Congress, Former Officials Say
The unnamed person at the center of this story sure didn’t sound like a whistleblower. Our intelligence community wouldn’t wipe its ass with a real whistleblower.
Americans who’ve blown the whistle over serious offenses by the federal government either spend the rest of their lives overseas, like Edward Snowden, end up in jail,...
- 10/6/2019
- by Matt Taibbi
- Rollingstone.com
MaryAnn’s quick take… A gripping précis of what Edward Snowden learned at the CIA and Nsa, why he went public, and why it matters. Entertaining yet also deeply unsettling. I’m “biast” (pro): big fan of Oliver Stone, and of Edward Snowden; love the cast
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Snowden opens in June 2013, as journalists Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo: London Has Fallen, The Big Short) and Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto: Star Trek Beyond, Hitman: Agent 47) first meet and interview, over several days, Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The Night Before, The Walk), in a hotel in Hong Kong. My first thought upon my second viewing this weekend of Oliver Stone’s (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, W.) gripping docudrama about these shocking real-life events is...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Snowden opens in June 2013, as journalists Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo: London Has Fallen, The Big Short) and Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto: Star Trek Beyond, Hitman: Agent 47) first meet and interview, over several days, Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The Night Before, The Walk), in a hotel in Hong Kong. My first thought upon my second viewing this weekend of Oliver Stone’s (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, W.) gripping docudrama about these shocking real-life events is...
- 4/3/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
MaryAnn’s quick take… Shocking, essential documentary looks at the shameful and avoidable failure of the Nsa to prevent 9/11. All Americans (and everyone else) should see this film. I’m “biast” (pro): really fucking tired of all this shit
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Because there’s always room for more outrage, herewith A Good American, an absolutely infuriating documentary about how 9/11 could have been stopped by intelligence software the National Security Agency had in its hands but didn’t use because of “corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse” within the agency, as a lawsuit brought by its inventor alleges.
I’m pretty good at following this sort of stuff and yet I’d never heard of Nsa analyst Bill Binney or his program, ThinThread, before I saw this film. Why the hell did it take an Austrian documentarian, Friedrich Moser,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Because there’s always room for more outrage, herewith A Good American, an absolutely infuriating documentary about how 9/11 could have been stopped by intelligence software the National Security Agency had in its hands but didn’t use because of “corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse” within the agency, as a lawsuit brought by its inventor alleges.
I’m pretty good at following this sort of stuff and yet I’d never heard of Nsa analyst Bill Binney or his program, ThinThread, before I saw this film. Why the hell did it take an Austrian documentarian, Friedrich Moser,...
- 2/2/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Former National Security Agency analyst William Binney is chief witness in this flawed documentary about two surveillance systems
Less scoping with its all-seeing eye than apparently shooting itself in the foot, the Nsa gets another battering in this intriguing but troubling documentary, released in the slipstream of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. It’s a tale of two surveillance systems: Trailblazer, the pre-2006 digital-comms sweep that failed to anticipate 9/11, vs ThinThread, the Diy precursor developed on the downlow by former Nsa technical director-turned-whistleblower Bill Binney. A crack analyst who pioneered the concept of meta-data (“the data about the data”), Binney is a conduit for a fascinating run-through of postwar intelligence-gathering, starting with the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which he claims he predicted. Yet lambasting rival security factions for their incompetence and cronyism, while compacting bigger issues about privacy and democracy, A Good American is in danger of coming across like an Nsa internal review.
Less scoping with its all-seeing eye than apparently shooting itself in the foot, the Nsa gets another battering in this intriguing but troubling documentary, released in the slipstream of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. It’s a tale of two surveillance systems: Trailblazer, the pre-2006 digital-comms sweep that failed to anticipate 9/11, vs ThinThread, the Diy precursor developed on the downlow by former Nsa technical director-turned-whistleblower Bill Binney. A crack analyst who pioneered the concept of meta-data (“the data about the data”), Binney is a conduit for a fascinating run-through of postwar intelligence-gathering, starting with the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which he claims he predicted. Yet lambasting rival security factions for their incompetence and cronyism, while compacting bigger issues about privacy and democracy, A Good American is in danger of coming across like an Nsa internal review.
- 9/22/2016
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
Austrian director Friedrich Moser is a self-confessed fan of spy stories, so it's not surprising he made a documentary about the Nsa's former meta-data expert Bill Binney. Titled A Good American, the film played at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Bill Binney was one of the guests at the festival, and was greeted with applause at all his appearances. Meta-data is data about data, and for decades Bill Binney managed to work miracles with it. Working as an analyst for the Us National Security Agency, he extracted valid information from phone-calls, emails, documents, even when the contents of those were encrypted beyond deciphering. Knowing what people say and write to each other may be interesting, but establishing the fact that they're part of a network...
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- 2/16/2016
- Screen Anarchy
7 Early Year Releases, from 'Going Clear' to 'Mad Max,' That Deserve Awards Buzz 10 Ways the 'Room' Filmmakers Wrote Their Own Script for an Oscar Contender Afghanistan Documentary 'Frame by Frame' Is Catching Attention Arthouse Audit: Oscar Contenders "Spotlight' and 'Brooklyn' Rule Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival Winners and Disappointments Could 'A Good American' William Binney Have Prevented 9/11 and Other Terrorist Attacks? Don't Remake 'Memento,' Please! Film Essayist Mark Rappaport on His Movie Archaeology: "If I get pretentious with this, slap me senseless" First Look: Liam Neeson in Martin Scorsese's Period Epic, 'Silence' From 'The Martian' to 'Room,' How Confined Spaces Convey Character in 6 Oscar Contenders 'Goodnight Mommy': Foreign Oscar Outsider, or Austria's Secret Weapon? How Amazon's 'The Man in the High Castle' Uses History's Icons to Create Tension How 'A Simple Song' Emotionally Elevates Paolo Sorrentino's 'Youth' How...
- 11/21/2015
- by TOH!
- Thompson on Hollywood
These are questions that have been raised in recent years in Madrid, in London, and in the Us after 9/11. So in a tragic way, the latest atrocity makes the documentary “A Good American” even more timely. The film had its North American premiere at Doc NYC and hit theaters this weekend. For many it will make upsetting viewing. Directed by Austrian Friedrich Moser, it charts the former Nsa analyst William Binney’s development of ThinThread, a targeted surveillance system that Binney and his colleagues claim would have categorically prevented 9/11 – had the agency not sidelined their work in favor of a rival system that was generating huge amounts of income for both the agency and the private sector, but proved to be a disaster. The film further deals with the Nsa’s mass surveillance post 9/11, exposed by Binney himself when he turned whistleblower, and more controversially by Edward Snowdon, with the...
- 11/15/2015
- by Demetrios Matheou
- Thompson on Hollywood
Read More: Will Kathryn Bigelow's New Post 9/11 Project 'True American' Draw Right Wing Attacks? Friedrich Moser, the documentary filmmaker who brought audiences "Brussel's Business," will premiere his latest doc, "A Good American," next week. No stranger to delving into dark and complicated political topics, Moser's newest film looks at the relatoonship between corporate greed and pesonal ambition in conjunction with "the closure of a cheap and effective monitoring system that demonstrably could have stopped the 9/11 terrorist attacks." "A Good American" introduces audiences to the man behind the monitoring system, Bill Binney, who tells his side of the story and how his ingenious system was completely disregarded in favor of ineffective and overpriced intelligence programs. As a result, that decision created hundreds of jobs at the CIA, allowing various former Nsa employees to be rewarded gross amounts of money. "A Good...
- 11/9/2015
- by Elle Leonsis
- Indiewire
The Nsa could have easily prevented the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. So claims a convincing, if evidence-light, documentary about whistleblower William Binney
Despite the controversy over Edward Snowden’s revelations of Us surveillance of its citizens, it’s easy to imagine the country’s security services privately not being that embarrassed: there might be professional pride in overzealous snooping.
But such bodies’ role in 9/11 is another matter entirely. What if it could be shown that the Nsa could have – should have – prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center; that its failure to do so wasn’t due to bad luck, but a lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance and greed; and that they then sought to cover up their mistakes?
Continue reading...
Despite the controversy over Edward Snowden’s revelations of Us surveillance of its citizens, it’s easy to imagine the country’s security services privately not being that embarrassed: there might be professional pride in overzealous snooping.
But such bodies’ role in 9/11 is another matter entirely. What if it could be shown that the Nsa could have – should have – prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center; that its failure to do so wasn’t due to bad luck, but a lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance and greed; and that they then sought to cover up their mistakes?
Continue reading...
- 11/9/2015
- by Demetrios Matheou
- The Guardian - Film News
Anne Wivel’s Mand Falder will open the festival, which will screen 200 docs including 60 world premieres.
Copenhagen documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the programme for its 13th edition, which runs Nov 5-15.
The line-up features 200 documentaries including 60 world premieres, 18 European premieres and 14 international premieres.
Danish film Mand Falder, directed by Anne Wivel, will open the festival. The film centres around the artist Per Kirkeby and his recovery after suffering from a brain hemorrhage.
16 documentaries will compete in the main competition for the Dox:award, including Friedrich Moser’s journalistic docu-thriller A Good American about William Binney’s programme ‘Thinthread’ that could have prevented 9/11, but was cancelled by the Nsa, and Aslaug Holm’s Norwegian documentary Brodre, which was shot over 8 years and centres around two boys growing up.
Helena Trestikova’s Czech documentary Mallory about life at the bottom of Czech society also features in the competition, which was won last year by Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence.
Sean McAllister...
Copenhagen documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the programme for its 13th edition, which runs Nov 5-15.
The line-up features 200 documentaries including 60 world premieres, 18 European premieres and 14 international premieres.
Danish film Mand Falder, directed by Anne Wivel, will open the festival. The film centres around the artist Per Kirkeby and his recovery after suffering from a brain hemorrhage.
16 documentaries will compete in the main competition for the Dox:award, including Friedrich Moser’s journalistic docu-thriller A Good American about William Binney’s programme ‘Thinthread’ that could have prevented 9/11, but was cancelled by the Nsa, and Aslaug Holm’s Norwegian documentary Brodre, which was shot over 8 years and centres around two boys growing up.
Helena Trestikova’s Czech documentary Mallory about life at the bottom of Czech society also features in the competition, which was won last year by Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence.
Sean McAllister...
- 10/16/2015
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
How do you make a riveting, chest tightening film out of the raw documentation of one of the most reported on watershed moments in the history of American whistle-blowing of which we already know the final outcome? Somehow Laura Poitras has constructed a stupendously taut thriller out of what is essentially an exclusive account of history in the making with Citizenfour, a film that was produced in secret, premiered at the New York Film Festival with the support of HBO and Radius-twc and deservedly showered in awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature.
The film begins in the darkness of a tunnel with Poitras in voiceover, reading calmly, clearly, yet still in a hushed, ominous tone, the first anonymously sent encrypted contact she received from Edward Snowden, operating covertly at the time under the code name ‘Citizenfour’. He has access to incriminating government secrets. He believes the American public should know about them.
The film begins in the darkness of a tunnel with Poitras in voiceover, reading calmly, clearly, yet still in a hushed, ominous tone, the first anonymously sent encrypted contact she received from Edward Snowden, operating covertly at the time under the code name ‘Citizenfour’. He has access to incriminating government secrets. He believes the American public should know about them.
- 9/8/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
“The subject of Citizenfour, Edward Snowden, could not be here for some treason.” – Neil Patrick Harris at The Oscars
The feature film Snowden is currently in post-production and will be released in the Us on Christmas day. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Edward Snowden in the film directed by Oliver Stone, so don’t expect subtlety. If you want to find out more about Snowden, be sure to check out the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, which will be released on Blu-ray August 25th.
Few documentaries have cameras rolling as history is being made. But director Laura Poitras found herself in the middle of momentous times while making Citizenfour, which took us behind the scenes as Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden worked with (among others) journalist Glenn Greenwald to expose the organization’s systematic surveillance of everyday Americans. From the worried initial meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room to the later fallout across the globe,...
The feature film Snowden is currently in post-production and will be released in the Us on Christmas day. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Edward Snowden in the film directed by Oliver Stone, so don’t expect subtlety. If you want to find out more about Snowden, be sure to check out the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, which will be released on Blu-ray August 25th.
Few documentaries have cameras rolling as history is being made. But director Laura Poitras found herself in the middle of momentous times while making Citizenfour, which took us behind the scenes as Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden worked with (among others) journalist Glenn Greenwald to expose the organization’s systematic surveillance of everyday Americans. From the worried initial meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room to the later fallout across the globe,...
- 8/19/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Seamless and as darkly riveting as any John le Carré or Graham Greene thriller, Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour puts an indelibly human face on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, while ripping away any mask of pretense that the most massive and sophisticated breach of privacy in American history had grounding in reality, let alone the law.
Almost defiantly avoiding most of the technological gimcrackery we’ve come to expect in advocacy filmmaking, and rushed to completion (though never looking it) in time for its world premiere last night at the 52nd New York Film Festival, Citizenfour is likely to open the eyes — not to say change the minds — of doubters who would like to see Snowden tried for treason.
It’s a devastating account of how 9/11 was used to justify the abrogation of civil liberties on an unimaginable, even global scale as the National Security Agency spread a metastasizing net to intercept...
Almost defiantly avoiding most of the technological gimcrackery we’ve come to expect in advocacy filmmaking, and rushed to completion (though never looking it) in time for its world premiere last night at the 52nd New York Film Festival, Citizenfour is likely to open the eyes — not to say change the minds — of doubters who would like to see Snowden tried for treason.
It’s a devastating account of how 9/11 was used to justify the abrogation of civil liberties on an unimaginable, even global scale as the National Security Agency spread a metastasizing net to intercept...
- 10/11/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
New York (AP) — A trove of government documents reveals widespread domestic surveillance of Americans. Leaked revelations hit the front pages of newspapers. A powerful governmental agency is brought under scrutiny. Sound familiar? It's the story of the documentary "1971," premiering Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival, a film about a little-known but hugely important break-in on March 8, 1971. A group of eight calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into a laxly guarded satellite FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia. They found files that proved the extensive spying that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was conducting on dissident groups, civil rights leaders and anti-Vietnam War activists. It was the initial revelation of Hoover's covert Cointelpro (counterintelligence) program. If "1971" was a blockbuster, it would be called a prequel. In many ways, the story is an early echo of the National Security Agency and the Edward Snowden affair, only in a less technologically sophisticated time.
- 4/18/2014
- by AP
- Hitfix
The International Documentary Association’s 2013 Ida Documentary Awards honoured Jehane Noujaim’s Egyptian activism story The Square with the best feature award on Friday night (December 6) in Los Angeles.
The best short award went to Josh Izenberg’s Slomo, about neurologist turned rollerblader Dr John Kitchin.
The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Alex Gibney, currently in awards contention with The Armstrong Lie.
The Ida Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producer credits include The Square, Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War and The Crash Reel.
Laura Poitras received Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, broke the story of National Security Agency (Nsa) whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the Prism programme in the process.
Poitras is currently in Berlin editing a film about Nsa surveillance, the third of...
The best short award went to Josh Izenberg’s Slomo, about neurologist turned rollerblader Dr John Kitchin.
The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Alex Gibney, currently in awards contention with The Armstrong Lie.
The Ida Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producer credits include The Square, Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War and The Crash Reel.
Laura Poitras received Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, broke the story of National Security Agency (Nsa) whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the Prism programme in the process.
Poitras is currently in Berlin editing a film about Nsa surveillance, the third of...
- 12/7/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
HBO's Real Time is back for Friday night. Bill Maher's salon continues its 11th season Friday, Nov. 8 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live Et/tape-delayed Pt), with a replay at 11:00 p.m., exclusively on HBO. Allowing Maher to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists, and interviews with in-studio and satellite guests. Former Technical Director at the Nsa Bill Binney is the top-of-show interview guest. Former NY congressman Anthony Weiner is the mid-show interview guest. The roundtable guests are Gopac president David Avella, political analyst Victoria DeFrancesco Soto and political correspondent John Heilemann. Bill Maher has been a favorite of subscribers since his first special on the network in 1989, starring in...
- 11/8/2013
- by April Neale
- Monsters and Critics
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