"Citizenfour" and Our Freedom of Expression

Citizenfour is the story of how Edward Snowden became the whistleblower and/or traitor of the NSA. This documentary starts with Snowden contacting reporters anonymously, trying to find someone he could talk to with a safe connection. The first reporter he attempted to contact could not establish a safe enough connection for his requirements, so he moved on to Laura Poitras, the documentary maker.

Laura Poistras had made an earlier documentary about life in Iraq under U.S. occupation, and as she began her second film about the trial of a man held at Guantanamo Bay, she began to be detained when she crossed the U.S. border. She says she moved to Berlin to avoid having her cameras and files seized. Her efforts to document reality and her experience with the Department of Homeland Security led Snowden to believe that she would be willing to listen.

The most interesting aspect of this film is that it shows a sort of history in the making. The then 29-year-old Snowden made big headlines as he leaked the enormity of the NSA’s surveillance of world leaders as well as more average U.S. citizens. Viewers find a likeable enough young man who spends 8 days in a room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong as reporters ask him questions and verify what he is saying, writing up stories on different aspects of his information as they continue to interview him.

Citizenfour is a very quiet movie, sticking to the hotel room and talking heads for the most part. At times, you see signs of an idealistic young man who is horrified at what his own government is doing under the banner of protecting the homeland and who is worried about the effect this will have on his family. On the other hand, there are times that you wonder whether he has crossed over the line into mental illness, as his paranoia about the reach of surveillance leads him to do things like put a blanket over his head when he types his passcode into the computer.  

 

He certainly seems to enjoy the prospect of being someone who is making a big play; he looks forward to seeing how the world reacts.

I'm not much for conspiracy theories. For the most part though, his story seems very credible, and it is astonishing to think about how much information the US collects, how government officials may have lied under testimony about what they are up to, how much money they spend on facilities to accomplish their surveillance, and how little privacy we have left.

As frightening as it is to think that our own government is spying on us, then comes the news about North Korea’s involvement in getting a big-budget movie scuttled because they were unhappy with the storyline. I might not be the biggest proponent of ridiculous comedy efforts like The Interview, but I am a proponent of free speech and thought. In both the documentary and in the controversy surrounding Sony’s withdrawal of The Interview from theaters, the “chilling effect” of governments acting as thought police comes up again and again.

I would welcome anyone else's thoughts on the Snowden events and/or the movie. This documentary is an important one as we consider the freedoms that we enjoy and the potential for losing them.