''Reality Winner'' is a 2021 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film, directed and produced by Sonia Kennebeck.

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...

serves as an executive producer. It follows

Reality Winner Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991) is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media af ...

, who leaked a top secret document about

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government conducted Foreign electoral intervention, foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, presidential campaign of Hillar ...

to the media. The film had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

on March 17, 2021, and was released on October 11, 2023, by Codebreaker Films.

Synopsis

The film follows

, who leaked a document about

to the media. Winner, Billie Winner-Davis, Brittany Winner, Gary Davis,

Betsy Reed Betsy Reed (born 1968) is an American journalist and editor. From January 2015, she was the editor-in-chief of ''The Intercept''. In July 2022, she was named the editor-in-chief of ''Guardian US'', succeeding John Mulholland, and assumed her new p ...

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

John Kiriakou John Chris Kiriakou ( ; born August 9, 1964) is an American whistleblower, author, journalist and former intelligence officer. Kiriakou is a columnist with Reader Supported News and co-host of ''Political Misfits'' on Sputnik Radio. He was jailed ...

, and Thomas Drake appear in the film, while

Natalia Dyer Natalia Danielle Dyer (born January 13, 1995) is an American actress. She is known for starring as Nancy Wheeler in the Netflix science fiction horror series ''Stranger Things'' (2016–present). She has also appeared in the Peacock comedy thril ...

narrates letters and poems by Winner.

Production

Sonia Kennebeck was drawn to

's story, meeting with her mother, Billie Winner-Davis, frustrated with the lack of journalists covering the story, Kennebeck was granted access to the family and document. While in prison, Kennebeck attempted to interview Winner, however, was told by prison authorities her request was denied. Following the film's premiere at

, the film was completely re-edited, upon Winner's release from prison, and sitting down for an interview. Kennebeck turned to

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

to raise funds to complete post-production and to self-distribute the film, after struggling to secure distribution.

Release

The film had its world premiere at

on March 17, 2021. It also screened at CPH:DOX in April 2021. It was released on October 11, 2023, prior to a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

release on October 31, 2023, by Grasshopper Film.

Reception

''Reality Winner'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 90% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 21 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.90/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a rating of 58 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, united_states_vs_reality_winner 2021 films 2021 documentary films American documentary films Biographical documentary films Documentary films about elections in the United States Films about whistleblowing 2020s English-language films 2020s American films English-language documentary films