Review of Citizenfour (2014) by Art S — 07 Nov 2015
Similarly to the fact that we all know that we are going to die, we all know that we have no privacy in the digital world. We just try to put it out of our minds. So, one or two years on from the revelations that the US government is or was spying on all of us (with help from Apple, Google, Amazon, phone and credit card companies etc.
), nothing shown in this documentary footage of Edward Snowden is very surprising (even the fact that this footage exists is now unremarkable). Yet, director Laura Poitras (herself an unseen character in the story) still manages to create some suspense as we hear and see Snowden's first contact with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke the story.
Most of this film shows a fly on the wall view of people in a Hong Kong hotel room talking about the fearsome might of the US intelligence industry and what it might do upon being wounded. Snowden is undoubtedly a brave (perhaps self-injurious) character, but human.
The moral high ground is established and defended; unfettered surveillance was and is wrong. However, one can't help to think that, one or two years on, nothing really has changed.
This review of Citizenfour (2014) was written by Art S on 07 Nov 2015.
Citizenfour has generally received very positive reviews.
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