Are you comfortable knowing that someone is reading your personal emails? Do you dismiss the paranoid crazies who holler about Big Brother watching you? Is national security a priority that trumps other concerns?
Before you answer these questions, watch Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour — an alarm clock for some people’s ignorant slumber.
One colleague in the media business said, “It’s all conspiracy theorist garbage.” Another person told me she had no problem with the government spying on her as she had nothing to hide. If you hold either of these views, or don’t even know anything about Edward Snowden and the bombshell revelations of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) excessive abuse of power, then Citizenfour may be the most important thing you will see in years.
This documentary primarily takes place over eight days in the confinement of a hotel room in Hong Kong, where Snowden and other journalists (including Glenn Greenwald) sort out how they are going to release the classified NSA documents in their possession.
Although Poitras contributes nothing aesthetically grabbing — the shooting is standard with on-the-fly framing choices and intuitive cuts — the flow of her editing melds together a plethora of material including encrypted messages, dishonest statements from both Barack Obama and the director of the NSA, and testimony from Snowden.
This creates a spy thriller made from real life with a fascinating and heroic protagonist at the centre. Snowden is charismatic and intriguing as we witness the surveillance of him and his partner.
Citizenfour shows the intimate struggles of Snowden and the results of the NSA’s lack of transparency. The portrayal of American security agencies’ search for Snowden cuts to the heart of the problem: the unconstitutional actions of the NSA and the lack of concern from the president who is trying to condemn Edward Snowden while also attempting to brush the issues under the rug. Sure, Citizenfour looks at the proceedings from a one-sided perspective, but I’m not sure there is any other honest way to approach this material.
The NSA has access to people’s personal emails; politicians try to minimize the extent of these crimes and deceive you into thinking that it is absurd to believe that things are as bad as they seem. National security is being used as an excuse to surveil millions of people who are not a threat. Citizenfour must not be seen for its artistic achievements, but for its informative condensing of recent history.
If we hit the snooze button and sleep through this alarm, the consequences will be far graver than missing a day of work.
