World Premiere the Toronto International Film Festival

World Premiere The Toronto International Film Festival

Director: Fred Peabody
Producers: Peter Raymont, Fred Peabody, Andrew Munger, Steve Ord
Executive Producers: Peter Raymont, Jeff Cohen

Featuring

Carl Bernstein, Noam Chomsky, David Corn, John Carlos Frey, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Chris Hedges, Michael Moore, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Scahill, Matt Taibbi, and Cenk Uygur.

RT: 92 Minutes

Produced by White Pine Pictures in association with Super Channel and Société Radio-Canada with the participation of Canada Media Fund and The Ontario Media Development Corporation with the generous assistance of The Park Foundation and The Knight Foundation/Catalytic Diplomacy

All Governments Lie is a sponsored project ofIFP (

CANADA PUBLICITY
Virginia Kelly
V Kelly & Associates, Inc.
Tel: (416) 839-9239
Email: / USA PUBLICITY
David Magdael
David Magdael & Associates, Inc.
Tel: 213 624 7827
Cell: 213 399 1434
Email:

Logline

Independent journalists are changing the face of journalism, providing investigative alternatives to mainstream news outlets. Our cameras follow as they exposegovernment and corporate deception– just as the groundbreaking independentjournalist I.F. Stone did decades ago.

Short Synopsis

Independent journalists Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Matt Taibbi and others are changing the face of journalism, providing investigative alternatives to mainstream, corporate news outlets. Greenwald was thelead reporter on the revelations of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Scahillwrote Dirty Wars – the book and Oscar-nominated film on secret U.S. governmentassassinations. Our cameras follow as they exposegovernment and corporate deception– just as the ground breakingjournalist I.F. Stone did decades ago.

With government deception rampant, and intrusion of state surveillance into private life never more egregious, many journalists are finding that to aggressively investigate governments rather than act as “stenographers to power”, they need to abandon mainstream corporate news media to work at alternative, web-based sites.

A timely documentary for audiences who are more now than ever seeking alternatives to news media owned by huge corporations. All Governments Lie will change the way you watch and read the news forever.

Long Synopsis

“If something goes wrong with government, a free press will ferret it out and it will get fixed, but if something goes wrong with the free press, the country will go straight to hell.”

-Jeremy J.Stone, on his father I.F. Stone

Independent journalists Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!), Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept), Jeremy Scahill (Dirty Wars/The Intercept), Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone) and others are changing the face of journalism, providing investigative, alternatives to mainstream, corporate news outlets. Greenwald was thelead reporter on the revelations of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Scahillwrote Dirty Wars – the book and Oscar-nominated film on secret U.S. governmentassassinations.

Some have dubbed Greenwald, Scahill and their contemporaries, “Izzy’s Children”, and their work would undoubtedly make him proud. Our film captures in compelling, docu-vérité style the work of these journalists as they dig into investigative stories. Our cameras follow as they exposegovernment and corporate deception– just as the ground breakingjournalist I.F. Stone did decades ago.

Media conglomerates are increasingly reluctant to investigate or criticize government statements and policies. With government deception rampant, and intrusion of state surveillance into private life never more egregious, many journalists are finding that to aggressively investigate governments rather than act as “stenographers to power”, they need to abandon mainstream corporate news media to work at alternative, web-based sites.

A timely documentary for audiences who are more now than ever seeking alternatives to news media owned by huge corporations. All Governments Lie will change the way you watch and read the news forever.

Featuring appearances by: Glenn Greenwald, JeremyScahill, Amy Goodman, Matt Taibbi, Sharif Abdel-Kouddous, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Carl Bernstein and others.

Praise for All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone

"Journalism, as the film points out, is meant to represent us, to ask the hard questions on our behalf, to be skeptical and to be the adversaries of those in power. The film speaks to that powerfully."

-Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director, International Documentary Association

“Peabody chillingly reminds us of what can happen when media organizations place profit over social responsibility…At a time when a creature of privilege like Trump can present himself as a champion of the common man, Peabody's portrait of Stone — a true American hero, one who actually gave voice to the powerless and dispossessed — is all the more vital.”

- Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Film Festival

"We watched the film and agree that it is tribute to all that Izzy (I.F. Stone) represents and a success in your estimable mission to preserve and enhance his legacy."

– Peter Osnos, Journalist and founder of PublicAffairs books

"Powerful film of the journalistic garden that evolved from seeds Izzy (I.F Stone) sowed with his little newsletter."

–Bill Kovach,US journalist, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times

Subjects from the Film (selected)

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

“We have an awesome responsibility as independent journalists, with a microphone going to where the silence is, standing on the shoulders of people like I.F. Stone.”

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 1,400 public television and radio stations worldwide.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard honoured Goodman with the 2014 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'. She is the first co-recipient of the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award, named for the great muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, and was later selected for induction into the Park Center’s I.F. Stone Hall of Fame.

Goodman has co-authored sixNew York Timesbestsellers. Her latest one,Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing Americalooks back over the past two decades of Democracy Now! and the powerful movements and charismatic leaders who are re-shaping our world. She has also received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored. Goodman received the first everCommunication for Peace Awardfrom the World Association for Christian Communication.

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

“I think I. F. Stone essentially created the template for what a truly independent and adversarial journalist is.”

Glenn Greenwaldisone of three co-founding editors of The Intercept. He is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, and author of fourNew York Timesbest-selling books on politics and law. His most recent book,No Place to Hide, is about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world. Prior to co-founding The Intercept, Glenn’s column was featured atTheGuardianandSalon. He was the debut winner, along with Amy Goodman, of the Park Center I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism in 2008, and also received the 2010 Online Journalism Award for his investigative work on the abusive detention conditions of Chelsea Manning. For his 2013 NSA reporting, he received the George Polk award for National Security Reporting; the Gannett Foundation award for investigative journalism and the Gannett Foundation watchdog journalism award; the Esso Premio for Excellence in Investigative Reporting in Brazil (he was the first non-Brazilian to win), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Along with Laura Poitras,Foreign Policymagazine named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers for 2013. The NSA reporting he led forTheGuardianwas awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept

“I think the people that are really digging into the national security state are in many ways the descendants of I. F. Stone. And that principle, ‘Governments Lie”—it continues to this day.”

Jeremy Scahill is one of the three founding editors ofThe Intercept. He is an investigative reporter, war correspondent, and author of the international bestselling booksDirty Wars: The World Is a BattlefieldandBlackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere across the globe. Scahill has served as the national security correspondent forThe NationandDemocracy Now!.

Scahill’s work has sparked several congressional investigations and won some of journalism’s highest honors. He was twice awarded the prestigious George Polk Award, in 1998 for foreign reporting and in 2008 forBlackwater.Scahill is a producer and writer of the award-winning filmDirty Wars, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Matt Taibbi, First Look Media

Matt Taibbi is one of the sharpest and funniest writers covering politics today. His books take on major injustices facing the United States and the world today.

His latestThe Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gapdives deep into the nature of America’s income disparity.

His writing inRolling Stonehas earned him accolades for his relentless pursuit of the actors behind the late 2000s financial meltdown. It was his description of Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” that was taken up as a banner image of the crisis’ villains. That work on the financial crisis was captured in his 2010 book,Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America.

His other books contain the same sharp investigative instincts, including the much praised 2009 bookThe Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion. In 2008 Taibbi won the National Magazine Award for his column inRolling Stone, where he continues his scathing and insightful writing to this day.

Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!

Nermeen Shaikh worked in research and non-governmental organizations before joining Democracy Now! She has an M.Phil. from Cambridge University and is the author ofThe Present as History: Critical Perspectives on Global Power(Columbia University Press).

John Carlos Frey, Journalist/Filmmaker

John Carlos Frey is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker shining a spotlight on life along the US-Mexico border. His work around the struggles of migrant communities has earned him a reputation as a gritty first-hand reporter. For 2007’sThe Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon, he lived outdoors among migrants in deplorable conditions next door to some of the most affluent areas of America.

His desire to pull back the curtain on what’s really happening on Mexico’s border with the US has taken him directly into the world of this marginalized population to ultimately help bring change. His reporting has brought safety features to canals that were drowning migrants, audits of police departments, and investigations into Homeland Security use-of-force protocols.

Besides his documentary work, Frey has appeared inThe Nation,The Huffington Post,The Los Angeles Times,The New York Times, andThe Wall Street Journal.

His investigative reporting has earned him a George Polk Award, an IRE Medal, and two Society of Professional Journalism Awards, as well as recognition from Amnesty International, The ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and others.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! Correspondent

Sharif joined the Democracy Now! staff as a producer in 2003. Since then, he has covered news stories around the world, including reporting from Baghdad during the Iraq war, New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Haiti in the days after the January 2010 earthquake as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2004 and 2008. Sharif grew up in Cairo, Egypt.

Michael Moore, Filmmaker

“I can draw a direct line between I.F. Stone and what I’m doing now. He played such an important role in inspiring me to think a different way. "

Michael Moore’s heartbreaking first film,Roger and Meportrays the degree of corporate greed at work at so-called domestic automaker General Motors in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

The film launched his career of questioning the powers that be while capturing the anguish of dollar-driven despair heaped on the town by its main employer to wide critical acclaim. His 2002 documentaryBowling for Columbine, which took a critical look at the roots of the Columbine High School massacre, nudged Michael Moore further into the spotlight. He won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature that year.

Moore didn't stop there, directing and producingFahrenheit 9/11in 2004. That film broke down George W. Bush’s presidency vis-a-vis the War on Terror. It won the Palme d’Or, going on to be the highest-grossing American box office documentary.

Moore forged ahead with the social justice-charged message in the 2007 health industry critique,Sicko. Just a year later he followed up withSlacker Uprising—a call to vote release for free on the internet.

Most recently Moore has taken a satirical route. 2015’sWhere To Invade Next?sees Moore “invading” countries that are doing a better job at just at everything from workers’ rights, to education, health care, women’s rights and drug policies, turning a mirror to America on issues it thinks it leads the charge on, but is actually trailing quite drastically.

Director’s Statement – Fred Peabody

This all started with my being inspired years ago by I. F. Stone, when I was a teenaged would-be investigative journalist. In 2013 I became energized and inspired all over again, as I delved into a book called “The Best of I. F. Stone”. Then Myra MacPherson’s excellent biography of Stone, “All Governments Lie” reinforced my interest. As I continued to explore, I found many other journalists and filmmakers equally inspired, some of them on the cutting edge of independent, adversarial reporting about government deception.

It struck me as a great story. A secret guru was inspiring today’s new wave of investigative journalists—a man most of the public had never heard of. And those new independent journalists were fighting the same kind of David and Goliath battle Izzy Stone did decades ago—a battle for nothing less than truth and justice, in a world where the Stone quote “All governments lie” was never more apt.

It was obvious to me that a film documentary had to be made.

This is not a story set in the U.S.A. or Canada; it’s a global story.

I wanted to tell the story of these passionate independent journalists, past and present, to bring the public into their worlds, and to tell the story of this band of “muckrakers” from my own perspective. As a former investigative producer on the CBC program "the fifth estate" and on ABC's "20/20", I know how difficult it can be to uncover deception and reveal truths.

All Governments Lie is a timely documentary for today’s digital-savvy viewers who increasingly seek information from independent media, and are distrustful of large, corporate media outlets. This film takes seemingly unconnected events and journalistic heroes stretching over many decades and link them together to tell an important story that will resonate with audiences in Canada and around the world.

I want to inspire others with the story of I. F. Stone’s courageous, decades-long battle against government lies, and with the more recent stories of independent journalists who are fearlessly following in Stone’s footsteps. They are the antidote and alternative to the mainstream media conglomerates that are increasingly showing their blind spots and weaknesses—and losing the public’s trust. All Governments Lie is not, however, only about independent journalism, politics and democracy. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a film about humanity and values. I want viewers to walk away remembering what I. F. Stone was trying to do:

"To write the truth as I see it; to defend the weak against the strong; to fight for justice;

and to seek, as best I can, to bring healing perspectives to bear on the terrible hates and

fears of mankind, in the hope of someday bringing about one world, in which men will

enjoy the differences of the human garden instead of killing each other over them."

I.F. Stone

This is a message that needs to be heard. All Governments Lie tells a story that needs to be told.

The Filmmakers

FRED PEABODY, Director

I wanted to tell the story of today’s independent “muckrakers” from my own perspective. As a former investigative producer I know how difficult it can be to uncover deception and reveal truths. These new independent journalists are fighting the same kind of David and Goliath battle Izzy Stone did decades ago—a battle for nothing less than truth and justice, in a world where the Stone quote “All governments lie” is never more apt. – Fred Peabody

Vancouver based Fred Peabody is an Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker whose credits include seven years as a producer-director on the acclaimed CBC investigative program “the fifth estate”. In 2003 he was Supervising Producer on“Perfect Illusions”, a PBS documentary about eating disorders in young women. His film on the childhood exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets was nominated for an Emmy in 1998, and he won an Emmy in 1989 for a film about wild horses rescued from starvation and abuse.