The United States government has grown more and more secretive over time, making it much harder for the American people to know what’s really going on in Washington. In this film, Mark Mazzetti, Washington Investigations Editor for The New York Times, speaks candidly about how increased government secrecy has made reporting more challenging than ever. But it’s also made the role of journalism even more vital. It’s the job of journalists to provide the transparency and accountability that we’re seeing less and less of from government.

As Mark talks, we see secrecy represented through a series of arresting images of declassified, redacted government documents. The redactions increase from page to page, until the entire screen is filled with black.

The documents used in the film are real intelligence documents uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act, and ultimately helped expose the National Security Administration’s warrantless wiretapping and surveillance program.