Cover-Up Trailer: Laura Poitras is back with a vital depiction of investigative journalism.

      After the acclaimed documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras has collaborated with Mark Obenhaus to direct Cover-Up, which provides a glimpse into the life of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. The film delves into decades of misconduct and atrocities committed by the U.S. military and intelligence, while underscoring the importance of independent journalism untainted by capitalist influences. Scheduled for theatrical release starting December 19 at Film Forum, with a Netflix premiere on December 26, the first trailer has been unveiled.

      Here is the synopsis: “Cover-Up is a political thriller that traces the impactful career of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh. Urgent and meticulously researched, Cover-Up is both a portrayal of an indefatigable reporter and a condemnation of institutional violence, exposing a cycle of impunity within the U.S. military and intelligence sectors. Utilizing exclusive access to Hersh’s notes and incorporating primary documents and archival footage, Cover-Up illustrates the power and methodology behind investigative journalism.”

      In her review, Savina Petkova noted, “Cover-Up is as comprehensive as any documentary of its kind ought to be, summarizing its subject’s accomplishments and the struggles he faced to publish them while allowing relevant, contemporary events to permeate its narrative. In two significant instances, Hersh is shown on speaker phone with an anonymous source in Gaza, and their dialogue anchors the film in the present without making the connection overly explicit. Cover-ups, alongside the creation of denial and misinformation, have become a means of justifying war, normalized by American politicians—a legacy evident in Israel’s organized, violent actions in Gaza—and while the film does not explicitly assign blame, its dedication to exposing systemic injustice achieves that effectively. In this respect, Cover-Up may be regarded as the most significant American documentary of the year. Poitras and Obenhaus have crafted a documentary that serves as both an informative film and a film-document: educational in the way it allows its subject to recount familiar stories, fully aware that they contribute to an alternative political narrative of America, both past and present.”

      Check out the trailer and poster below.