Many of you know about the documentary Secrecy from the ACLU Membership Conference in June, where we screened it and hosted a Q&A with filmmakers Robb Moss and Peter Galison afterwards. Co-director Robb Moss was also part of the Rights, Camera, Action panel discussion on Sunday, June 8, and his fellow co-director Peter Galison spoke on the panel, “The Battle Between Government Secrecy and the Public’s Right to Know,” on Monday, June 9. Galison said:
In a single recent year the U.S. classified about five times the number of pages added to the Library of Congress. We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge dwarfs the production of open knowledge. Depending on whom you ask, government secrecy is either the key to victory in our struggle against terrorism, or our Achilles heel.
Secrecy is about the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. By focusing on classified secrets, the government’s ability to put information out of sight if it would harm national security, Secrecy explores the tensions between our safety as a nation, and our ability to function as a democracy.
What you might not know is that since the conference Robb and Peter have added footage to the film to include an interview with ACLU attorney Ben Wizner about our client Khaled El-Masri and state secrets. Ben will participate in some discussions across the country as the film opens in theaters today. More information on the film is available here on the film’s official website, and more on the ACLU’s work around these issues can be found here.
