Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras sharply criticized the Toronto and Venice film festivals today for programming documentaries connected with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggesti…
’s Doc Conference, a day after Poitras’s new documentary,, made its North American premiere in Toronto. The film about artist Nan Goldin and her crusade against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, won the Golden Lion at Venice.Gutsy, a documentary executive produced by the Clintons that focuses on one of Afghanistan’s few female mayors.
Poitras said she thought “long and hard” about voicing her criticisms, saying she didn’t wish to distract from the work of fellow documentarians premiering films at TIFF. But, referencing Clinton, she said, “I do think that people who are occupying that level of power that hard questions should be asked.”
She continued, “The last years have been terrifying for journalists. First, the Obama administration — it mobilized the Espionage Act more than it had ever been used, targeting whistleblowers and journalists. And now it’s escalated not just to whistleblowers and sources under Obama, now it’s being used towards a publisher [Assange].”
Poitras’s interlocutor for the Doc Conference was Thom Powers, TIFF’s chief documentary programmer, who presumably played a key role in choosingfor the festival’s lineup. Despite the potential awkwardness involved, Powers urged the filmmaker to articulate her critique, saying “Use your voice, Laura.” That was met with stirring applause.
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