The Informant!

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, 2009, US, 108m, comedy/drama/thriller
Saturday, October 16, 8PM, AFI
Monday, October 18, 7PM, AFI

Darkly comic film from Steven Soderbergh stars Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, who exposed the lysine price-fixing conspiracy of the mid-1990s, which led to the first successful prosecution of an international cartel by the U.S. Department of Justice in more than 40 years. Whitacre thought it would make him a hero; but the story is not that simple. Soderbergh brilliantly explores complex web of truth and deception, trust and betrayal, raising fundamental questions about the treatment of those who blow the whistle in society and filmmaking.

Panel discussion following the Saturday, October 16th showing of The Informant! will include: Mike German, former FBI Special Agent & whistleblower and current ACLU Policy Counsel, Gardner Harris of The New York Times, and Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight. The panel discussion will last approximately 20-30 minutes after the movie.

Mike German is a sixteen-year veteran of the FBI, where he served as a Special Agent in domestic terrorism, bank fraud and public corruption investigations. While at the FBI, German also served in undercover operations, successfully helping to prevent several terrorist attacks. He resigned from the FBI in 2004 after suffering retaliation for reporting misconduct in FBI counter-terrorism investigations. Since then he worked to improve and defend our national security, civil liberties, and right to blow the whistle on wrongdoing.

Gardiner Harris is the public health reporter for The New York Times.  Before working at the Times, he worked at The Wall Street Journal and lived for four years in Hazard, Kentucky, as the Eastern Kentucky bureau chief for The Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal. His reporting in Kentucky led to broad changes in laws governing coal-mine safety and black-lung compensation, and it earned him national journalism awards, including a George Polk Award and the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative journalism.

Since 1993, Danielle Brian has led the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit government watchdog organization that has conducted numerous investigations with whistleblowers resulting in major public policy reforms. POGO also advocates for stronger whistleblower protections and is currently working to enact enhanced rights for federal workers.

Fair Game 

Directed by Doug Liman, 2010, US, 104m, political thriller
With appearances by Doug Liman, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. 
Tuesday, October 19, 7PM, AFI

Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) weaves the real-life twists and turns of the Valerie Plame case into an intriguing political thriller. After Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joe Wilson, published an op-ed piece critical of the Bush administration's WMD intelligence, Plame was outed as an undercover CIA operative in a Robert Novak column (thanks to a leak from the White House), effectively ending her career. As Plame, Naomi Watts finds the subtle shadings within her dual suburban mom/professional spy identity, while Sean Penn delivers a note-perfect portrayal of the ever-determined Joe Wilson. Official Selection, 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

The finale for the FilmFest is the DC premiere of Doug Liman’s Fair Game, the Valerie Plame story.  Plame was outed as an undercover CIA operative in a Robert Novak column (thanks to an alleged leak from the White House), effectively ending her career. This was after Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joe Wilson, blew the whistle on the Bush administration's "weapons of mass destruction" intelligence claims in a NY Times op-ed.  Liman, Valerie Plame, and Ambassador Joe Wilson will present the film and discuss their experience with whistleblowing in this intriguing chapter of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.

Post Screening Press:
Obama Makes "Fair Game" of Today's Whistleblowers, By Art Levine, Truthout.org, November 5, 2010.