Showtime premiered the first trailer for the Laura Poitras documentary “Risk” during the season finale of “Homeland” on Sunday night.
The film, Poitras’ follow-up to her 2014 Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour,” was filmed over six years including through the 2016 presidential election and up to the present, following Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and those who surround him.
“This is not the film I thought I was making,” Poitras says in the trailer. “I thought I could ignore the contradictions, I thought they were not a part of the story. I was wrong. They were becoming the story.”
Her words are followed by leaked audio in which Poitras herself is described “a documentary filmmaker who is known to be anti-U.S.” by the FBI.
“Risk” was originally intended to be the final documentary in Poitras’ trilogy about the aftermath of 9/11, which began with “My Country, My Country” in 2006 and “The Oath” four years later. “Citizenfour” was a detour that originally arose from Poitras’ contact with whistleblower Edward Snowden during her work on “Risk.”
Executive produced by “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail, “Risk” hails from Field of Vision and First Look Media. Showtime Networks has partnered with NEON to release the film theatrically nationwide ahead of its premiere on the network this summer. A version of the film first premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival last May.
“It is an exciting time to be working with Showtime and Neon,” Poitras said in a statement. “Both organizations are thinking outside the box about how to bring complex stories to a wide audience. I am thrilled to team up with them on RISK.”