In the Works: SILENCED

The Oscar-nominated director of INCIDENT IN NEW BAGHDAD exposes the federal war on whistleblowers.

Increasingly, government whistleblowers – those courageous individuals who are driven by their conscience to reveal sensitive, classified, and potentially incriminating information to the public – are themselves being prosecuted as criminals. In an age of instantaneous communication, heightened paranoia, and divisive politics, the impulse to punish those who would unearth embarrassing or illegal activities threatens to erode the very foundations of freedom upon which the country is built. Director James Spione, whose INCIDENT explored visual evidence of such wrongdoing allegedly disseminated by Bradley Manning, profiles four whistleblowers and reveals the personal costs speaking the truth has had on their lives.

Spione is well on his way to making his Kickstarter campaign goal of $35,000 for post-production funding. With just under two weeks left, he’s got just over 25% left to raise, at the time of this writing. To keep updated on the project, visit its website.

Anyone concerned about government transparency and accountability should be disturbed by a government more motivated to take punitive action against whistleblowers than against the perpetrators of the illicit activities that they reveal. Spione’s subjects exposed a range of post-9/11 scandals, from torture to wiretapping – instances of the federal government sidestepping the rule of law – only to face that same government’s about face as it overzealously turned the law against them. In revealing their ordeal – blowing the whistle, as it were, on what’s been done to them – Spione takes the administration to task, and reminds us all of our fundamental freedom to question those in authority.

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