​Poitras and Obenhaus honor Hersh in “Cover-Up”

By Greg Carlson

The great documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras had to work diligently to convince Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh to be the subject of one of her films. Most accounts and reviews of “Cover-Up,” the movie that would eventually be born from a collaboration between Poitras and co-director Mark Obenhaus, describe the famous investigator as a reluctant participant. Whether out of a desire to protect the identities of the often anonymous sources with whom Hersh interacts or a tendency to avoid revealing too much (or much of anything) about himself, Hersh’s skepticism layers the story with the overall aura of integrity that readers have associated with the man’s work since his reporting on the Vietnam War.

Poitras and Obenhaus are granted access to Hersh’s files and notes (the participation of Obenhaus, a longtime Hersh colleague, has been described as the factor that ultimately sealed the deal to finally get the movie made), and the filmmakers dig into their research in much the same manner Hersh would apply to his own dogged and indefatigable sleuthing. While the film focuses on the most significant milestones in the man’s decades-spanning career, “Cover-Up” includes a satisfying amount of personal background that humanizes Hersh with anecdotes about his childhood, including the astonishing tale of the decision for Seymour to work in the family dry cleaning shop on Chicago’s South Side because his folks only had enough money to send Seymour’s brother to college.

Fortunately, Hersh’s insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge would eventually lead him from Hyde Park High to the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Chicago, where he would earn a history degree in 1958. In candid on-camera interview segments, Poitras and Obenhaus know when to get out of Hersh’s way, which is most of the time. The directors can’t possibly hope to uncover every aspect of their subject’s wide-ranging and very long list of important publications, but even the greatest hits should provide viewers with the raw material to inspire much-needed critical thinking. Some will surely long for more newshounds in the tradition of Sy Hersh, especially in an age when it seems like every major media outlet is committed to controlling narratives that protect billionaire interests and owners.

The story of Hersh’s writing about the unconscionable war crime we call the My Lai Massacre — the largest confirmed mass killing of unarmed citizens committed by United States military forces in the 20th century — unsurprisingly emerges as one of the central segments of “Cover-Up.” Poitras and Obenhaus smartly connect the dots by keeping Hersh’s working methods as simple and straightforward as this kind of presentation allows. Poitras knows plenty about high stakes. Coverage of Edward Snowden and mass surveillance in “Citizenfour” (2014) put her own freedom at risk; Poitras has been repeatedly detained and harassed by the United States government.

“Cover-Up” addresses the elimination of a chapter from Hersh’s 1997 book “The Dark Side of Camelot,” recognizing that long before the firehose of disinformation and obfuscation reached its current levels of pressure, the verification of facts as an essential part of the journalist’s process can frustrate even the most careful writer. Without explicitly calling out the daily dose of Orwellian absurdities spewing from the mouthpieces of the current administration, Poitras and Obenhaus make clear that whistleblowers and leakers willing to trust people like Seymour Hersh are a vital resource in the forever war being waged on disclosure, accountability and transparency.  

Reach film critic Greg Carlson at gregcarlson1@gmail.com.