In cooperation with Doxumentale Filmfestival +
Q&A with Tatiana Bazzichelli and Anna Ramskogler-Witt.

XY CHELSEA tells the historic story of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year sentence in an all-male maximum security prison was commuted by President Obama in 2017. XY CHELSEA is the journey of her fight for survival and dignity, and her transition from prisoner to a free woman.

As a cooperation between Disruption Network Lab, Doxumentale, and Sputnik Kino, we are screening XY CHELSEA, a pre-event to the 37th conference of the Disruption Network Lab:

EXPOSING CRIMES IS NOT A CRIME – The Real-World Consequences of WikiLeaks:
19–21 March at HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1) - 22 March at Stadtwerkstatt, Berlin.

More information:
https://www.disruptionlab.org/exposing-crimes-is-not-a-crime**

The conference focuses on the impact of documents released by WikiLeaks, which marked a turning point in investigative journalism. Their global impact is inseparable from the actions of Chelsea Manning, as it will be discussed on the War & Military session on March 19 at 8pm at HAU1.

As an U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Manning leaked an unprecedented archive of classified material, including the 2007 Baghdad airstrike video Collateral Murder, the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, and hundreds of thousands of military reports. These documents exposed civilian casualties, hidden war crimes, detainee abuse, and systemic misconduct long denied by U.S. authorities.

The film XY CHELSEA follows Chelsea Manning after instigating the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history, when she disclosed approximately 750,000 documents to WikiLeaks. The former soldier and trans woman was initially sentenced to spend most of her life in an all-male military prison. After seven years inside, her sentence was commuted by Barack Obama in 2017.

The film accompanies Manning as she leaves prison and begins a new life, while simultaneously dealing with the far-reaching consequences of her past: the historic leaks that led to her imprisonment, the unintended celebrity status thrust upon her as one of the world’s most notorious whistleblowers, and her transition into the woman she has always known herself to be.

XY CHELSEA is the journey of her fight for survival and dignity, and her transformation from prisoner to a free woman. More info about the film: https://www.pulsefilms.com/work/item/xy-chelsea

Tatiana Bazzichelli (Founder and Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab. IT/DE) - Tatiana Bazzichelli is the founder and director of the Disruption Network Lab, a non-profit organisation in Berlin that explores the intersection of politics, technology and society (www.disruptionlab.org). Her work focuses on whistleblowing, network culture, art and activism. She is the author of the books Whistleblowing for Change (2021), Networked Disruption (2013), Disrupting Business (2013) and Networking (2006). She was a curator at the transmediale art & digital culture festival in Berlin, where she developed the year-round programme and curated conferences, workshops and art projects. She was a jury member of the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Berlin Capital Cultural Fund), the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Award Committee 2020, and the Kulturlichter Prize.