Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald have been receiving encrypted emails for nearly 4 months from someone called Citizenfour; the content of these emails allude to a disturbing level of surveillance committed by the American NSA and the British GHCQ. The contact wants to meet Laura and Glenn and show them everything, they agree, they meet in a hotel in Hong Kong. An inconspicuous young man named Edward Snowden greets them, and he is about to leak to them the worse surveillance crimes ever committed, and Edward is scared.
The atmosphere of the film immediately establishes the feeling of paranoia, justified paranoia, felt by all those involved. Poitras uses clear visual language to establish that what they are doing flies in the face of many powerful people. She uses archaic typeface and computer screens to establish a hacker vibe, and a tone of dissent, she cuts back and forth to mainstream media and to the three of them hid away in Hong Kong, and she intermingles interviews with William Binney to show how far the government will go to stop information about their intrusive programs from leaking.
Poitras also does something incredibly important; she humanizes Edward Snowden. Mainstream media and the government have tried incessantly to cast discursions about the character of Snowden; "martyr complex" " narcissist" "computer weirdo" have been some of the slanders used to diminish his achievements. Poitras makes Snowden seem reasonable and somewhat nice; even when he has thrown a blanket over his head to stop the NSA from visually identifying his password, he jokes about and tries to use this moment to connect to Greenwald.
Also some of the candid admissions that Poitras manages to extract from Snowden shows the strength of Poitras' interviewing style. The admission by Snowden about how he realises his life is going to be from now onwards; about leaving his loved ones behind and the fear he felt throughout, makes him come across as incredibly brave. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." (Nelson Mandela)
Citizenfour last act is a summary of how the release of these documents have affected the lives of all those involved. It's depressing to see that those who stand up for what is right have been harassed and followed by the British and American government figures. Poitras tries to end the film on high note with Edward and his partner living together again, cooking and cleaning in an apartment in Moscow. Poitras however battles against the Hollywood ending, and shows the frustration of fighting the good fight, and leaves us reflecting upon the drone program. Poitras is saying not to rest on the achievements of her, Greenwald and Snowden, but forces her audience to continue discussing the terrifying reach of the American government.
The atmosphere of the film immediately establishes the feeling of paranoia, justified paranoia, felt by all those involved. Poitras uses clear visual language to establish that what they are doing flies in the face of many powerful people. She uses archaic typeface and computer screens to establish a hacker vibe, and a tone of dissent, she cuts back and forth to mainstream media and to the three of them hid away in Hong Kong, and she intermingles interviews with William Binney to show how far the government will go to stop information about their intrusive programs from leaking.
Poitras also does something incredibly important; she humanizes Edward Snowden. Mainstream media and the government have tried incessantly to cast discursions about the character of Snowden; "martyr complex" " narcissist" "computer weirdo" have been some of the slanders used to diminish his achievements. Poitras makes Snowden seem reasonable and somewhat nice; even when he has thrown a blanket over his head to stop the NSA from visually identifying his password, he jokes about and tries to use this moment to connect to Greenwald.
Also some of the candid admissions that Poitras manages to extract from Snowden shows the strength of Poitras' interviewing style. The admission by Snowden about how he realises his life is going to be from now onwards; about leaving his loved ones behind and the fear he felt throughout, makes him come across as incredibly brave. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." (Nelson Mandela)
Citizenfour last act is a summary of how the release of these documents have affected the lives of all those involved. It's depressing to see that those who stand up for what is right have been harassed and followed by the British and American government figures. Poitras tries to end the film on high note with Edward and his partner living together again, cooking and cleaning in an apartment in Moscow. Poitras however battles against the Hollywood ending, and shows the frustration of fighting the good fight, and leaves us reflecting upon the drone program. Poitras is saying not to rest on the achievements of her, Greenwald and Snowden, but forces her audience to continue discussing the terrifying reach of the American government.