I'm hoping this is not news to anyone, but the National Security Agency of the United States government has programs in place that have the outreaching ability to see the metadata of any calls,texts, internet communications anyone, virtually anywhere in the world makes. And public knowledge of these programs is due to a former employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden, releasing this information to journalists in 2012. Citizenfour is the Laura Poitras documentary about Snowden that includes actual footage and interviews with him in the hotel room in Hong Kong as he was releasing the information to Poitras and other journalists. The film itself is smart and beautifully shot, but its the greater message and information that is most important to me. The film doesn't include any real government secrets for the most part that weren't already publicly known. It does however, paint a very intimate and responsible picture of Snowden that until this point was missing. The access the filmmakers had to him is incredible for such a highprofile and now controversial man. This film is the 3rd in a trilogy of documentaries by Poitras about post 9-11 America with the first being My Country, My Country about US occupation in Iraq and the Oath about Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Not surprising either is that Poitras is consider a "flagged" or "high threat" individual by the US and currenly resides in Berlin in order to protect her film materials from US inspection and confiscation.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Weekly Post - Anne
I'm hoping this is not news to anyone, but the National Security Agency of the United States government has programs in place that have the outreaching ability to see the metadata of any calls,texts, internet communications anyone, virtually anywhere in the world makes. And public knowledge of these programs is due to a former employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden, releasing this information to journalists in 2012. Citizenfour is the Laura Poitras documentary about Snowden that includes actual footage and interviews with him in the hotel room in Hong Kong as he was releasing the information to Poitras and other journalists. The film itself is smart and beautifully shot, but its the greater message and information that is most important to me. The film doesn't include any real government secrets for the most part that weren't already publicly known. It does however, paint a very intimate and responsible picture of Snowden that until this point was missing. The access the filmmakers had to him is incredible for such a highprofile and now controversial man. This film is the 3rd in a trilogy of documentaries by Poitras about post 9-11 America with the first being My Country, My Country about US occupation in Iraq and the Oath about Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Not surprising either is that Poitras is consider a "flagged" or "high threat" individual by the US and currenly resides in Berlin in order to protect her film materials from US inspection and confiscation.
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