“If you’re not pissing off a billionaire, then there’s not much point.” Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press is the story of pissing off billionaires. Tech, billionaires to be exact.
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press details the grueling fight between Gawker.com’s CEO Nick Denton and Hulk Hogan, following Gawker’s leak of Hogan’s sex tape. In one of the most thought provoking films of the summer, director Brian Knappenberger questions the future safety of the press after Silicon Valley’s largest tech giant, Pieter Thiel’s , secret financial backing of Hogan’s legal expenses and campaign against Gawker.com’s CEO Nick Denton were revealed.
In what seems to be a battle between the top 1% and those who present the truth to the public, Knappenberger perfectly captures today’s modern dilemma and problematic shift in culture- media distrust. In the age of Donald Trump, it seems the media has taken a beating from almost every side. The bankrupting of Gawker CEO Nick Denton by one of America’s richest billionaires is just one of the many cautionary tales of what happens when free speech and the first Amendment are put into question. But the core theme surrounding the film is to always keep in mind – it’s bigger than just Gawker. It boils down to the dangerous effects private money has on the free press and how the inflow of news affects the future of our government.
Unbiased, and leaving no stone unturned, Knappenberger also questions the media, by highlighting Gawker’s salacious and sensationalized style of reporting. Audience members will leave theaters and drive home feeling torn over which side to lend their sympathy- if any at all.
In what may be the most shocking 95 minutes of cinema, Nobody Speak will leave you on the edge of your seat. The film has been released on Netflix alongside its theatre run and can be streamed online through any mobile device. You don’t want to miss out.
We screened the film on the closing night of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.