email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

CITIZENFOUR

by Laura Poitras

synopsis

This documentary is the never before seen, utterly riveting first-person look at how director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald first met with whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong where he gave them documents showing widespread abuses of power by the National Security Administration. It is an unprecedented fly-on-the-wall account of one of the most groundbreaking moments in recent history. In January 2013, Poitras was several years into making a film about surveillance in the post-9/11 era when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as "citizen four," who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. In June 2013, she and Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.

international title: Citizenfour
original title: Citizenfour
country: United States, Germany
sales agent: Praxis Films
year: 2014
genre: documentary
directed by: Laura Poitras
film run: 114'
release date: US 10/10/2014, DE 6/11/2014, FR 4/03/2015, ES 27/03/2015
cinematography by: Laura Poitras, Kirsten Johnson, Katy Scoggin, Trevor Paglen
film editing: Mathilde Bonnefoy
producer: Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
co-producer: Katy Scoggin, Kirsten Johnson
production: Praxis Films
distributor: Piffl Medien Filmverleih, Haut et Court, Avalon

Privacy Policy