Citizenfour
Director: Laura Poitras
Starring: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Appelbaum
114 mins; Class TBA;
Eden Cinema Release
My first instinct on getting home immediately after watching Citizenfour was to change each and every one of the passwords on my phone, email, bank accounts and internet shopping sites.
Over-reaction, you may ask? Maybe. Yet, such is the power of this documentary by Oscar-nominated director Laura Poitras that I guarantee it will have the same effect on most people. After all, as Joseph Heller famously wrote in Catch 22, “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”.
Paranoia features much in Citizenfour, but these are not the ramblings of a rabid conspiracy theorist. It is a detailed and starkly compelling documentary which asks a simple question; is our privacy a worthy price to pay for our freedom? Yet, it absolutely cannot give a simple answer given the complexities of what is involved.
The film documents the many meetings Poitras and The Guardian newspaper journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill had with the (in)famous Edward Snowden, the American computer systems analyst who leaked secret information from the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden recounts in detail the extent of the mass and illegal invasions of the privacy of Americans and citizens of other countries by the NSA, spying on phone calls, internet use, social media and so on.
It makes for riveting viewing. Up to now, Snowden was an elusive figure; a fleeting picture on the news as the world’s media covered his lengthy stay in a Russia airport before finally being granted temporary asylum there.
Soft-spoken, intelligent and articulate, Snowden makes powerful arguments in defence of his actions – his genuine disappointment at the failed promises that the Obama administration would end these illegal practices means that he is fired by his outrage at the wide-reaching privacy breach. Is Snowden a hero or a traitor? By the end of the movie, I would think that few would have any doubts what side of the issue they fall on.
Poitras deserves credit for keeping her presentation deceptively simple. The film efficiently sets up its foundation, with scenes that take place before and after the core events as she places her camera in a Hong Kong hotel room where Snowden was in hiding before he went to Russia, as he goes through all he has to say to the two journalists present.
If, at times, the subject does get bogged down in legal and technological jargon, there is never a moment when interest wanes. Poitras piles on the tension minute by minute.
Although Snowden jokes about being infected with the paranoia bug, he and his guests visibly jump out of their seats when a fire alarm suddenly sounds – and it’s not fire they are afraid of. It says much that he refuses to use his laptop for the most part, writing frenzied notes which he destroys as soon as they have been read.
The film is a sober examination of how exposed we are when we make a phone call or use our computer.