In early 2103, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and erstwhile Homeland Security watchlist designee, Laura Poitras was working on the third in a what was to be a trilogy on the ramifications of post-9/11 wars and policies when she received encrypted emails from an anonymous source identified only as "citizen four". What followed proved to be an unveiling of covert surveillance on a previously unimaginable scale, and a massive news story. The central protagonist was an American freelancer for the NSA named Edward Snowdon. Poitras first exposed his face to the world, through a short video statement released in tandem with initial articles by journalist Glenn Greenwald. What was not exposed at that time was just how incredibly articulate and charismatic a figure Snowden is, nor the full scale of the real-life thriller that the release of the documents created. There is more tension in the eight days spent in a small hotel room in Hong Kong than in the sweeping arcs of most political thrillers in contemporary cinema today. Essential viewing for anyone concerned with the implications of a "security-society" as well as lovers of great documentary filmmaking.
Program subject to change.