Tas Brooker’s documentary 'When We Speak' tells the stories of three female whistleblowers: Katharine Gun, Helen Evans and Rose McGowan.
When: 2 November, 2022. 6:30pm (GMT).
Where: Curzon Soho, London.
Katharine Gun worked at the UK’s government communication headquarters (GCHQ). In 2003, she intercepted an email from the US National Security Agency, an email asking GCHQ to assist the US in their efforts to legitimise a war on Iraq. Seeing that the US would bribe or blackmail UN diplomats in pursuit of this goal, Katharine went to the press.
In 2010, an earthquake devastated Haiti. During a visit to the country, Oxfam employee Helen Evans made a shocking discovery: male aid workers were paying female earthquake survivors for sex. After reporting it to senior staff and seeing that no action was taken, Helen went to the press.
In 2017, Rose McGowan broke her silence regarding the sexual assault perpetrated by film producer Harvey Weinstein. The ensuing court case shook the world.
By cutting between these stories, Brooker highlights their common threads. Abuses of power, exploited vulnerabilities. Crises of conscience, painful examinations of where one’s loyalties lie. We hear the motivation behind the decision to whistleblow, and we see its dramatic fallout. These are stories of sacrifice, integrity, and tremendous courage; of positive social change, at great personal cost.
Watch the trailer here
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