FILM TRACES 33 YEARS OF CIA'S 'SECRET HISTORY'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140107-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 107
• Publication Date: February 15, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140107-5
STAT
MINNESOTA DAILY
University of Minnesota
15 February 1983'
FIni traces 33 years o
By Richard Hoops
Torture and mercenary intrigue rarely
lead to positive public relations. And
with three hours of film that pieces
together ties to secret police, hired
soldiers, and organized crime, the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
has reason for dismay at the theatrical
release of "On Company Business,"
a documentary tracing 33 years of
CIA "secret history."
But the CIA has not yet complained -
about any inaccuracies to Allan Fran-
covich, the film's director.
"The whole point of it-and the
reason the film was five years in the
making-was to make sure every-
thing in it was accurate," Francovich
said in an interview Saturday. "After
public showings, people who have
been in the CIA or are still in the CIA
come up and tell me they think the
film is extraordinary because it is an
accurate depiction."
"On Company Business" paints a
sordid picture of the history and ac-
tivities of the CIA since its inception
in 1947, portraying it as a government
unto itself and beyond executive or
legislative authority. The film uses no
narrative to make its point, relying in-
stead on material from news archives
and interviews with past and present
CIA officials. Included among the
latter are William Colby, director of
the CIA from 1973 to 1976, and ex-
agents Phillip Agee and John Stock-
well.
'The film is not investigative journa-
lism trying to cover new ground,"
Francovich said. "It is an attempt to
show and explain basic things-some
very shocking things-using the his-
torical record."
Francovich is visiting Minneapolis to
introduce "On Company Business"
at showings this week at the Univer-
sity. The film has been released in six
U.S. cities since November 1982,
when a two-year option by the Public
Broadcasting System (PBS) on the
documentary ran out.
PBS bought the option to "On Com-
pany Business" during its last year of
producton, Francovich said, but the
controversy the film caused when it
was aired on television in 1980 kept it
secret history'
in the can until last year. cials is somewhat surprising. Among
A re Colby and
e
,,It was aired once and created such a
storm, such a reaction on the part of
the CIA, that they pressured the PBS
system into taking it off the air,"
Francovich said. "In order to release
it in theatrical situations, I had to let
the option expire."
"It's in distribution in about 30 or 40
countries," Francovich said. "It's
gotten consistently great reviews and
large audiences."
During its first two weeks running in
Washington, D.C., he added, "On
Company Business" was the city's
top-grossing film, thanks in part to a
large number of CIA employees in
the audiences.
Francovich, 41, is the son of an
American mining engineer who
those interview, a w
David Atlee Phillips, former Western
Hemisphere division chief for the
CIA. During the interviews with CIA
officials and agents, Francovich said
he found many of them were ex-
tremely sociable.
"They have to have a certain amount
of social skills because a lot of the
work they do is social," Francovich
said. But he added that many of them
also "have a great deal of arro-
gance. "
"They're quite used to manipulating
the press, ' Francovich said. "And I were aware of
don't reaily think
of this film, in other words
the scope pe
the thoroughness of what we were
going to do."
"In some cases, it's not so difficult to
get an interview, to do an interview,"
Francovich said. "What's difficult is
to prepare yourself, to have a sense
of who they are, why they will talk to
you, how what they say fits in, and
what the main thrust of the interview
should be.
"Some people were more difficult
than others. Obviously, when you're
interviewing William Colby, you're
not going to get him to reveal any se-
crets. But what you do get is a portrait
of this man and a portrait of his credi-
bility, particularly as contrasted with
someone else."
Francovich said he is interested in
making available some of the film
shot during tht production of "On
Company Business." He said he is
trying to organize a group that will
employ unused footage to make
shorter films focusing on specific as-
pects of CIA operations. In addition,
he said he would like to see shorter
versions of the three-hour documen-
tary made available to school and
social groups.
"The whole purpose of making films
is so people can see them and learn
something from them," Francovich
said. "If not, they're an awfully ex-
pensive way to aggrandize your
ego."
worked more than 20 years in Latin
America. Francovich said he grew up
in almost every tsatin American coun-
try "south of Honduras" and had a
first-hand opportunity to see the
degree of U.S. influence in those
countries.
"On Company Business grew out of
a documentary Francovich made
called "Chile in the Heart," a film
about the last three years in the life of
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda
died in 1973, around the time of the
September coup that overthrew the
elected government of Salvador Al-
lende and installed the military junta
led by General Augusto Pinochet.
"His funeral was one of the first acts
of resistance against the Pinochet
government, " Francovich said. "And
'
re making a film on
obviously, if you
Chile between the years of 1970 and
'73, you're dealing with the whole
issue of the United States' role there. I
got in touch with some people who
worked for the CIA to ask them ques-
tions about what the CIA had done in
Chile. And'On Company Business'
came out of those conversations."
Given the generally negative and oc-
casionally startling revelations pre-
sented in the film about the CIA,
Francovich's access to top CIA offi-
STAT
Francovich is now working on a doc-
umentary about U.S.-Australian rela-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140107-5