“The Trust Fall: Julian Assange”! This documentary was launched final 12 months, however have you ever occurred upon it? Nicely, you need to have, because it was narrated by the legendary Kelly Slater, the king of the waves boasting a formidable 11 world browsing titles. And guess who else lent their voices to this riveting documentary? Pink Floyd frontman, Roger Waters, and the rapper, M.I.A. However pause for a second, amidst all this star energy, who precisely is Julian Assange?
Julian Assange is an Australian editor, writer, and activist, most notably often called the founding father of WikiLeaks in 2006. His journey into the limelight started at a younger age, with early recognition within the Nineties as considered one of Australia’s most adept h*kers. Nevertheless, his focus shifted in the direction of making a platform devoted to revealing info for the sake of transparency and holding highly effective people and establishments accountable. WikiLeaks turned well-known for releasing an enormous quantity of confidential paperwork, movies, clandestine emails, and personal conversations involving influential folks.
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In 2019, Julian Assange’s authorized troubles escalated when the U.S. authorities accused him of espionage. They claimed he helped a U.S. Military intelligence analyst hack right into a Pentagon laptop and leak secret info. This led to a posh and high-stakes authorized battle, leading to his imprisonment at London’s Belmarsh Jail since 2019. Nevertheless, as of June twenty fourth, his 62-month sentence has been accomplished, and he was launched immediately.
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Impressed by Julian Assange’s journey, filmmaker Kym Staton created a documentary that delves deep into Assange’s life and controversies. However why did skilled surfer Kelly Slater, a determine far faraway from politics, narrate this story? How is a surfer linked to a whistleblower’s story?
What made Kelly Slater the proper voice for Assange’s story?
In 2023, Kelly Slater expressed sturdy assist for Julian Assange in an Instagram publish, stating, “He [Assange] put out information people didn’t want being put out but it was all truthful and I don’t know how you fault a guy for putting out the truth.” This endorsement caught the eye of filmmaker Kym Staton, who noticed in Slater a passionate advocate for fact and transparency.
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Staton determined to carry Slater on board to relate the documentary about Assange. He defined, “Having a professional surfer sportsperson may seem like a strange choice for a political film, however, please bear in mind that this film aims to educate a very wide audience about the important issues surrounding the Assange predicament, and one of the best ways to reach a wider audience is through role models and people with a large following and fan base who might otherwise never take the time to watch a political film. ”
By involving various figures like Kelly Slater, Staton aimed to leverage their affect to spotlight Assange’s story to new and broader audiences, making it a strategic and advertising transfer to succeed in folks from varied walks of life.him