In 2004, Laura Poitras had the idea of making a documentary film following Seymour Hersh in real time as he met sources or in meetings at The New Yorker, however Hersh was against the idea as it would be risky for sources, and did not want to talk about himself. Despite this, Poitras and Hersh remained in touch over the years.[6][7] Following the completion of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Poitras reached out to Seymour who suggested she speak with Mark Obenhaus as Obenhaus and Hersh had been wanting to enter production on a film revolving around Hersh's reporting on the My Lai massacre, which struggled to find financing.[8][9] Poitras and Obenhaus decided to collaborate, with Hersh allowing Obenhaus and Poitras alongside archival producers access to his archive, which amassed over 7,000 assets.[10] Obenhaus and Poitras alongside producer Olivia Streisand spent three months creating a proof-of-concept for the film, and figuring out how to work together.[11]All The President's Men and The Parallax View were among inspirations for the film's tone.[12]
In September 2025, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film planning a winter release.[19] It is was theatrically released in the U.S on December 19, which will be followed by a global streaming release on December 26.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 37 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Cover-Up shines a light on Seymour Hersh's remarkable career and the pugnacious commitment it required, making for an absorbing and instructive treatise on journalistic responsibility."[20]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[21]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
