The Producers

Kym Staton: Writer, Director and Producer

Kym Staton is an award-winning film Director, poet and musician from Australia. Staton has devoted nine years to the documentary industry. He is Founder and Director of Films For Change, an educational enterprise that has been operating since 2014. Initially Films For Change was a hybrid distributer, bringing live in-person cinema screenings of documentary films to ninety cities of the world, across Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.A. During the pandemic Films For Change evolved into streaming.

Making The Film

A protest outside of Westminster Magistrates Court.

Assange at home.

Director's Statement



“In 2010 I witnessed the ‘Collateral Murder’ video on the nightly news. At the time I didn’t
make sense of it. I had no idea of the significance of this footage, who Julian Assange or WikiLeaks were. Around seven years later I began to take an interest in Assange and WikiLeaks. I watched a few documentaries and a picture began to emerge. The whole situation was compelling and
intriguing.The main motivation for making this film came out of my own feeling of useless-ness on the issue, the fact that I had taken so many years to become aware of it and the urge to help
in some way.

In 2021 I began researching to make this documentary. Throughout the course of the first year of research and production I learnt a lot about the treatment of Assange, the
significance of the work of WikiLeaks and the wider issues affecting all of us. The deeper I
delved into these issues, and the more interviews that I conducted, the clearer my sense of injustice and my disgust with those responsible became. In mid 2022, after a year of production, my emotional reaction to this predicament reached a peak. For sixty days I wrote parts of the narration for the film, a page or so per day. I shared my daily writings on our social media. They received many responses. The passages that had the most response and engagement became the first draft of the narration script for the film.

With coming up with the concept and style of THE TRUST FALL with our Co-Producer Natalia Minana, we had a number of departures from the usual style of a political documentary. Firstly, we felt that it was high time for a film that would delve into the meaning and significance of the Assange predicament - rather than following a strict chronology throughout. A film about the big ‘WHY’ rather than just the ‘what’ and ‘when’.

Secondly, we didn’t want it to be a cold, dry political film that would resonate only with a tiny section of society. We wanted to give the film warmth, feeling and a soul. For this reason it is infused with philosophy, poetry and art. We wanted the audience to experience somewhat of an emotional ordeal in watching the film, a range of emotions, from sadness, to anger to shock, to hope. To leave the cinema exhausted, shaken and compelled to take action.

The aim of this film it to add weight to the campaign for the freedom of this heroic, courageous Australian journalist and peace-activist. For his freedom, and the freedom of
us all”.

- Kym Staton