The Most Dangerous Man in America

Directors/Producers: Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
Category: Democratic process
Total Running Time: 90 min.
Release Date: 2009
Website: http://www.mostdangerousman.org

Synopsis

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading US government Vietnam War strategist, came to realize that America’s role in the war was based on decades of lies. He leaked 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, an act of conscience that led directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation and the end of the American war in Vietnam. Ellsberg and other political and journalistic figures give a riveting account of those world-changing events.

The film raises questions about the duties and responsibilities that come with America’s freedom of the press. It shows how one individual can freely question a nation’s policies.

Trailer

About The Filmmakers

JUDITH EHRLICH has produced, written, and directed dozens of programs in video, radio, and multimedia on issues of non-violence, education, social justice, human rights, health, disability, housing and voting rights. In 1991, she produced a three-part radio series on the history of conscientious objection for public radio.

RICK GOLDSMITH produced and directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary feature Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press, broadcast nationwide on public television and cablecast on the Sundance Channel. The film dissects American journalism throughout the 20th century through the actions of a truly independent newspaperman, and offers a piercing look at censorship and suppression in the media. He recently wrote and edited Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey, a film on a pioneering and controversial African-American jurist.