Ithaka

The documentary follows the campaign to free Julian Assange. It turns the camera on his elderly father. John Shipton travels from country to country to save his son. For the family the struggle is a personal matter. Assange founded WikiLeaks. He is a figure almost everyone holds an opinion about. His case sits in the middle of an argument about press freedom. Government corruption and unpunished war crimes belong to that argument too. While the film is made he is in a British maximum security prison. His health is declining there. American prosecutors are pressing to extradite him. The family lives with the prospect of losing him for good. The film shows a political argument from inside a family story. The telling stays with the father’s days rather than the details of the case. John Shipton and Julian Assange appear in the one hundred eleven minute documentary. It is an Australian production Ben Lawrence finished in 2022.