Documentary 'Steal This Story, Please!' highlights Amy Goodman's advocacy for Indigenous and global human rights

A new documentary titled Steal This Story, Please! is set to premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival, offering a deep dive into the 30-year career of veteran journalist Amy Goodman. The film, directed by Oscar-nominated partners Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, follows the founder of Democracy Now! as she navigates the changing landscape of global media while maintaining a focus on truth and justice for marginalized communities. According to reporting by ABC Arts, the documentary highlights Goodman's history of courageous reporting from international front lines. Director Tia Lessin noted that Goodman has faced significant personal risk throughout her career, including facing "the barrel of a gun" during the Indonesian military occupation of East Timor. The film also documents her work exposing human rights abuses in Nigeria and her persistent questioning of powerful political figures regarding climate change and corporate consolidation. Goodman, who launched Democracy Now! in 1996 from a broom closet with only nine community radio stations, now broadcasts to over 1,500 public radio and television stations worldwide. She describes the platform as a "sanctuary of dissent," emphasizing the importance of independent media that operates outside of corporate influence. This mission remains central to the documentary, which explores the dangers of shrinking media diversity and the loss of independent voices in the public sphere. The film is scheduled for a national release on October 22, following its Adelaide screening. Lessin and Deal, who previously co-produced Fahrenheit 9/11 and directed Trouble the Water, produced the film independently to ensure editorial freedom. For Goodman, the documentary serves as a testament to the necessity of grassroots journalism in documenting Indigenous struggles and global social justice movements.