Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and Mark Obenhaus\u2019s (Steep) documentary on the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, unfolds like a lesson in recent history. Hersh\u2019s dogged reporting brought to light the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Most of us know that these horrific crimes happened, but we don\u2019t know how or why\u2014and what it took for these stories to be exposed. Now, with Hersh in the spotlight, we find out.
\nThe reporter\u2019s persistence, combined with attention to detail, a willingness to speak with anyone, and luck, leads to him uncovering events no one wanted to talk about. In one instance, a simple bluff leads to an off-hand bit of information that allows Hersh to crack open the story.\u00a0
\nSo many documentaries these days feel like the result of access\u2014someone was in the room and had a camera and so went for it. Cover-Up is different, it\u2019s an example of careful and considered filmmaking. In a wide-ranging interview, filmmaker and fellow journalist Poitras describes having fiction films in mind when approaching the project: \u201c1970s paranoia thrillers, brilliant films that were very skeptical and critical of the state and state power.\u201d Among these are Alan J. Pakula\u2019s All the President\u2019s Men\u00a0and\u00a0The\u00a0Parallax View.\u00a0
\nLater, she discusses why the subject is important: \u201cFrom the very beginning, we were interested in Hersh\u2019s reporting, but also in the patterns we could see across half a century, and particularly around atrocities, cover-ups, impunity, and the role of investigative journalism in circumventing that cycle\u2026 [O]ne of the reasons why we made this film was because we felt there\u2019s a crisis in investigative journalism, because it\u2019s hard, it\u2019s costly, often comes with legal threats, and often takes a lot of time, and that\u2019s harder to do if you don\u2019t have the architecture to support it.\u201d
\nDirected by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus. With Seymour Hersh. 1 hour 58 minutes.
\nStreaming on Netflix.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and Mark Obenhaus\u2019s (Steep) documentary on the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, unfolds like a lesson in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[456],"class_list":["post-24160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-investigate-unsolved-mysteries","tag-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\n