Citizenfour

Citizenfour
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Laura Poitras
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by Mathilde Bonnefoy
Production
company
Distributed by Radius-TWC
Release date
Running time
 113 minutes[1]
Country
  • United States
  • Germany
Language
  • English
  • German
  • Portuguese
Budget $1 million[2]
Box office $3 million[3]

Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, at the BFI London Film Festival. The film features Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, and was co-produced by Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky, with Steven Soderbergh and others serving as executive producers. Citizenfour received critical acclaim upon release, and was the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars.

Synopsis

In January 2013, Laura Poitras, an American documentary film director/producer who had been working for several years on a film about monitoring programs in the United States that were the result of the September 11 attacks, receives an encrypted e-mail from a stranger who calls himself, "Citizenfour."[4] In it, he offers her inside information about illegal wiretapping practices of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies. In June 2013, accompanied by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian intelligence reporter Ewen MacAskill,[5] she travels to Hong Kong with her camera for the first meeting with the stranger in a hotel, who reveals himself as Edward Snowden. Scenes of their meeting take place in Snowden's hotel room, where he maintains his privacy. Shots of Snowden in his bed, in front of his mirror and of the hotel from a distance form the character of Snowden as a trapped political agent.[6]

After four days of interviews, on June 9, Snowden's identity is made public at his request. As media outlets begin to discover his location at The Mira Hong Kong, Snowden relocates to Poitras' room in an attempt to elude phone calls made to his room. Facing potential extradition and prosecution in the United States, Snowden schedules a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and applies for refugee status. After Poitras believes she is being followed, she leaves Hong Kong for Berlin.

On June 21, the US government requests the Hong Kong government extradite Snowden. Snowden manages to depart from Hong Kong, but his US passport is cancelled before he can connect to Havana, stranding him in the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. On August 1, 2013, the Russian government grants Snowden temporary asylum for a period of one year.[7] Meanwhile, Greenwald returns to his home in Rio de Janeiro and speaks publicly about United States' utilization of NSA programs for foreign surveillance. Greenwald and Poitras maintain a correspondence wherein they both express reluctance to return to the United States.

Throughout, the film offers smaller vignettes that precede and follow Snowden's Hong Kong interviews, including William Binney speaking about NSA programs, and eventually testifying before the German Parliament regarding NSA spying in Germany.

The film closes with Greenwald, Snowden and Poitras meeting once again, this time in Russia. Greenwald and Snowden discuss new emerging details on US intelligence programs, careful to only write down and not speak critical pieces of information. Greenwald tears these documents creating a pile of scraps, before slowly removing them from the table.

Cast

Background on Snowden

Born on June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Edward Snowden first became involved with the United States government upon his enrollment in the Army Reserves in the spring of 2004.[8] Snowden claims to have left the program after a few months because he broke his legs in a training accident while a US House of Representatives report claims he had shin splints[9]. He then began working for the CIA in 2006 and was stationed with diplomatic cover by agency in Geneva, Switzerland in 2007. After nearly three years with the agency, Snowden resigned his position in February 2009 in order to begin working for a contractor for the NSA. It was at this point in his career that Snowden could sense that his views were changing; "I watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reigned in ... [The NSA] are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".[10] In 2012, Snowden was reassigned from his base in Japan to a base in Honolulu, Hawaii, working for a variety of different contractors before serving as a consultant to Booz Allen Hamilton[11].  

Production

By 2012, Poitras had begun work on the third film in her 9/11 trilogy, which she intended to focus broadly on the topic of domestic surveillance for which she interviewed Assange, Greenwald, Binney, and Appelbaum.[12] She was first contacted by Snowden in January 2013 after he was unable to establish encrypted communications with Greenwald.[13][14] She flew to Hong Kong in late May 2013, where over the course of eight days she filmed Snowden in his hotel room[12] at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong. Later, she traveled to Moscow where she filmed a second interview with Snowden conducted by Greenwald.

Production company Praxis Films was involved in the production of the documentary. The film was distributed by RADIUS TWC in the US,[15] BRITDOC Foundation and Artificial Eye in the UK[16] and Piffl Media in Germany. The broadcast rights for television were obtained by Channel 4 (United Kingdom), HBO Documentary Films (USA) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (Germany).

Release

The international film premiere took place on October 10, 2014, in the United States at the New York Film Festival. In Europe, the documentary was shown for the first time on October 17 at the BFI London Film Festival. The first showing in Germany was on October 27 as part of the Leipzig Film Festival. The director Laura Poitras was present in Hamburg Abaton cinema for a preview on November 4–5 at the official Germany Premiere at Kino International. In German cinemas, the film has been running since November 6. Its widest release as of January 22, 2015, was 105 theaters, in the weekend of December 12–18, 2014.[17]

It premiered on Home Box Office on February 23, 2015, the day after the 87th Academy Awards[18] and was subsequently released for streaming on HBO Go.[19] Channel 4 broadcast it in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2015[20] and has released it for view-on-demand through March 4, 2015.[21]

Reception

Citizenfour received widespread critical acclaim. It has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 137 critics, with an average score of 8.3/10 and the site consensus: "Part real-life thriller, part sobering examination of 21st century civil liberties, Citizenfour transcends ideology to offer riveting, must-see cinema."[22] Metacritic gave the film a score of 88 out of 100 based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[23]

Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote "No amount of familiarity with whistleblower Edward Snowden and his shocking revelations of the U.S. government's wholesale spying on its own citizens can prepare one for the impact of Laura Poitras's extraordinary documentary Citizenfour... far from reconstructing or analyzing a fait accompli, the film tersely records the deed in real time, as Poitras and fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald meet Snowden over an eight-day period in a Hong Kong hotel room to plot how and when they will unleash the bombshell that shook the world. Adapting the cold language of data encryption to recount a dramatic saga of abuse of power and justified paranoia, Poitras brilliantly demonstrates that information is a weapon that cuts both ways."[24]

Spencer Ackerman writes in The Guardian: "Citizenfour must have been a maddening documentary to film. Its subject is pervasive global surveillance, an enveloping digital act that spreads without visibility, so its scenes unfold in courtrooms, hearing chambers and hotels. Yet the virtuosity of Laura Poitras, its director and architect, makes its 114 minutes crackle with the nervous energy of revelation."[25]

Time magazine rated the film #3 out of its top 10 movies of 2014[26] and called the film "This Halloween's Scariest Chiller".[27] Vanity Fair rated it #4 out of its top 10[28] and Grantland rated it #3 of its top 10.[29] Writing for the Chicago Tribune, former Defense Department intelligence analyst Alex Lyda penned a negative review, calling Snowden "more narcissist than patriot".[30] David Edelstein reviewed the film mostly favorably, and jocularly advised viewers "don't buy your ticket online or with a credit card".[31]

The film site Fandor has published an extensive survey of other articles and reviews about Citizenfour, updated through December 25, 2014.[32]

Lawsuit

In December 2014, retired naval officer and oil executive Horace Edwards of Kansas filed suit against the film's producers "on behalf of the American people" for aiding and abetting Snowden's leaks.[33][34] The Hollywood Reporter provided some legal analysis, noting observers opining that Edwards may not have legal standing to pursue the lawsuit.[35] Edwards also challenged the film's Oscar eligibility on the grounds that Poitras' 2013 short film showing Greenwald interviewing Snowden constituted a previous release of Citizenfour, rendering it ineligible under Oscar rules. The Academy rejected the claim, noting that "the Guardian interview appears in less than two minutes of the documentary", and ruled that Citizenfour was eligible for Oscar consideration.[36]

In February 2015, the filmmakers asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to dismiss the lawsuit on standing and jurisdictional grounds, and on First Amendment grounds citing Bartnicki v. Vopper.[37] Edwards officially dropped the case on April 3, 2015.[38][39]

Awards and nominations

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipients and nominees Result
DOK Leipzig 2014[40] October 29, 2014 "Leipziger Ring" Citizenfour Won
Gotham Independent Film Awards December 1, 2014 Best Documentary Citizenfour Won
IDA Documentary Awards[41] December 5, 2014 Best Feature Citizenfour Won
Cinema Eye Honors[42] January 7, 2015 Outstanding Achievements in Nonfiction Filmmaking Citizenfour Won
Outstanding Achievements in Direction Laura Poitras Won
Outstanding Achievements in Editing Mathilde Bonnefoy Won
Outstanding Achievements in Production Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky Won
Audience Choice Citizenfour Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Award January 15, 2015 Best Documentary Feature Citizenfour Won
ACE Eddie Award January 30, 2015 Best Edited Documentary Feature Mathilde Bonnefoy Won
Directors Guild of America Award[43] February 7, 2015 Outstanding Directing – Documentaries Laura Poitras Won
BAFTA Awards[44] February 8, 2015 Best Documentary Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky Won
Satellite Awards February 15, 2015 Best Documentary Film Citizenfour Won
Independent Spirit Awards February 21, 2015 Best Documentary Citizenfour Won
Academy Awards[45] February 22, 2015 Best Documentary Feature Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky Won
Deutscher Filmpreis[46] June 19, 2015 Best Documentary Film Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky Won
Best Editing Mathilde Bonnefoy Nominated
Best Sound Design Frank Kruse, Matthias Lempert and Alexander Buck Nominated
Primetime Creative Emmy Awards[47] September 12, 2015 Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky Won
Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming Laura Poitras Nominated
Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming Laura Poitras Nominated
Outstanding Picture Editing For Nonfiction Programming Mathilde Bonnefoy Nominated

At DOK Leipzig 2014, when Citizenfour won the Leipziger Ring award, Edward Snowden gave a video message to the festival.[48]

Citizenfour won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[49] It was considered the frontrunner heading into the awards;[50][51][52] Brent Lang of Variety called for Citizenfour to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture,[53] with THR's Gregg Kilday discussing its prospects,[54] but it was not nominated in that category.

Poitras also received several journalistic and humanitarian awards for reporting the Snowden disclosures depicted in the film, including the George Polk award (with Greenwald and MacAskill),[55] the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize (with Edward Snowden)[56] the Carl von Ossietzky medal for human rights (with Greenwald and Snowden),[57] and the Henri Nannen Prize for Efforts for Independence of the Press.[58] The Guardian and the Washington Post received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting by Poitras, Greenwald, MacAskill, and Barton Gellman.[59]

Security

Poitras took many security precautions related to the film, described by military writer Peter Maass among others.[60] She moved to Berlin, Germany[61] after being detained repeatedly at border controls when entering the US.[60] She edited the film in Germany after flying directly there from Hong Kong with the Snowden footage, to prevent the FBI from showing up with a search warrant for her hard drives. All the film footage is kept on encrypted drives with multiple levels of nested protection.[62] The computer she uses for reading sensitive documents is separated from the internet by an air gap. Greenwald credited her with a "complete expert level of understanding of how to do a story like this with total technical and operational safety". Maass called Poitras' security skills "particularly vital — and far from the journalistic norm — in an era of pervasive government spying", and quotes Snowden stating that "[i]n the wake of this year's disclosure, it should be clear that unencrypted journalist-source communication is unforgivably reckless."[60]

Bonnefoy has also discussed the encrypted workflow used in making the film, adding "if we have a conversation that's particularly confidential, we'll move the electronics out of the room, or we'll just meet somewhere outside of the editing room, without our phones."[63]

The Film Society of Lincoln Center (which selects films for the New York Film Festival) reported[64] that Poitras changed the location of the initial screening for the NYFF's selection committee several times, in case someone was tracking her movements. The committee was shown a rough cut that had sensitive material redacted, and the NYFF "had to keep the movie's inclusion in the festival under wraps until mid-September" and it was "kept out of festival schedules and documents until we could talk about it openly". The last-minute inclusion in the festival's main slate was an unprecedented event for the NYFF,[65] and "tickets for both screenings sold out within just a few hours".[64]

The film's ending credits unusually[62] name several free software projects and security tools, without which "this film would not be possible". The programs named include Tor, Tails, Debian GNU/Linux, Off-the-Record Messaging, the GNU Privacy Guard, Truecrypt, and SecureDrop. In October 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an informational page about the software credited in the film,[66] and in November 2015 Poitras was prominently featured in a Tor fund-raising campaign.[67]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of portions of the Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts I–IV, which was released under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) in 2008.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "CITIZENFOUR (15)". British Board of Film Classification. October 17, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Citizen Four (2004)". The Wrap. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Citizenfour (2014)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (October 13, 2014), "These Are the Emails Snowden Sent to First Introduce His Epic NSA Leaks", Wired
  5. ↑ Suzanna Andrews; Bryan Burrough; Sarah Ellison (May 2014), "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light", Vanity Fair
  6. ↑ Thomas Keenan, “Windows: of Vulnerability,” Ed. Bruce Robbins, The Phantom Public Sphere (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1997), 121-141
  7. ↑ Chumley, Cheryl; Sherfinski, David. "Edward Snowden granted asylum in Russia, leaves airport". The Washington Times. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Edward Snowden". Biography. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  9. ↑ Executive Summary of Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden. Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives. 2016. line feed character in |title= at position 35 (help)
  10. ↑ Harding, Luke (2014-02-01). "How Edward Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  11. ↑ "Edward Snowden: A Timeline - NBC News". NBC News. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  12. 1 2 Packer, George (October 20, 2014). "Laura Poitras's closeup view of Edward Snowden". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  13. ↑ Lapin, Andrew (October 24, 2014). "'Citizenfour' Follows The Snowden Story Without (Much) Grandstanding". NPR. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  14. ↑ Greenwald, Glenn, Excerpt: Glenn Greenwald's 'No Place to Hide', ABC News
  15. ↑ Lang, Brent (October 26, 2014). "Radius-TWC Chief on 'Citizenfour': 'It's Going to Get Heated'". Variety. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  16. ↑ Frater, Patrick (September 17, 2014). "Edward Snowden Documentary 'Citizenfour' Added to London Festival Lineup". Variety. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  17. ↑ Citizenfour, Box Office Mojo
  18. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (January 8, 2015), Edward Snowden Docu 'CitizenFour' To Debut On HBO Right After Oscars, deadline.com
  19. ↑ Armstrong, Olivia (February 24, 2015), Oscar Winning Edward Snowden Documentary 'Citizenfour' Is Now On HBO Go, Decider
  20. ↑ Mullin, Joe (February 23, 2015), PSA: Oscar-winning Citizenfour to air on HBO today
  21. ↑ Citizenfour, Channel 4
  22. ↑ "Citizenfour (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Citizenfour Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  24. ↑ Scheib, Ronnie (October 11, 2014), "Film Review: 'Citizenfour'", Variety
  25. ↑ Ackerman, Spencer (October 11, 2014). "Citizenfour Review – Poitras' Victorious Film Shows Snowden Vindicated". The Guardian. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  26. ↑ Richard Corliss (December 2, 2014), "Top 10 Best Movies", Time magazine
  27. ↑ Corliss, Richard (October 26, 2014), "Review: Citizenfour Is This Halloween's Scariest Chiller", Time
  28. ↑ Lawson, Richard (December 8, 2014), "The 10 Best Movies of 2014", Vanity Fair
  29. ↑ Wesley Morris (December 18, 2014), The Top 10 Movies of 2014, Grantland
  30. ↑ Lyda, Alex (December 23, 2014), "Edward Snowden is more narcissist than patriot", Chicago Tribune
  31. ↑ David Edelstein (October 24, 2014), The Edward Snowden Documentary Citizenfour Puts You Right in the Room As History Is Made, vulture.com
  32. ↑ Hudson, David (October 12, 2014), NYFF 2014 - Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, Fandor
  33. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (December 22, 2014), "Citizenfour Producers Sued Over Edward Snowden Leaks", The Hollywood Reporter
  34. ↑ Wingerter, Justin (December 31, 2014), "Topeka man, 89, files suit against Edward Snowden, documentary producers", The Topeka Capital-Journal
  35. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (January 14, 2015), "Man Suing Over Citizenfour Looks to Drag U.S. Into Edward Snowden Leaks Lawsuit", The Hollywood Reporter
  36. ↑ Feinberg, Scott (December 23, 2014), "Academy Rejects Challenge to Citizenfour Oscar Eligibility", The Hollywood Reporter
  37. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (February 11, 2015), "'Citizenfour' Filmmakers Demand End to Lawsuit Over Edward Snowden Disclosures", The Hollywood Reporter
  38. ↑ Kansan Drops Suit Over Oscar-Winning Snowden Doc, Courthouse News Service, May 7, 2015
  39. ↑ Notice of Dismissal (PDF), Court filing, April 3, 2015
  40. ↑ Film Prize 'LEIPZIGER RING', DOK Leipzig, November 1, 2014
  41. ↑ 30th Annual IDA Documentary Awards Winners
  42. ↑ Lewis, Hilary (January 7, 2015), "'Citizenfour' Wins Four Awards at Cinema Eye Honors", The Hollywood Reporter
  43. ↑ McNary, Dave (February 7, 2015), "DGA Awards: 'Birdman' Wins Best Feature Film for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu", Variety
  44. ↑ "Film in 2015". bafta.org. BAFTA. n.d. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  45. ↑ "The 87th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  46. ↑ "Die Preisträger des deutschen Filmpreises 2015 (German)" (PDF). deutscher-filmpreis.de. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  47. ↑ "Citizenfour". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  48. ↑ Snowden honors the peaceful revolution in Leipzig, DOK Leipzig, October 28, 2014
  49. ↑ "The 87th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  50. ↑ Feinberg, Scott (October 10, 2014), "New York Film Fest: 'Citizenfour' Hacks Way to Top of Uber-Competitive Doc Oscar Race", The Hollywood Reporter
  51. ↑ Ben Beaumont-Thomas (January 15, 2015), "Oscars 2015: Edward Snowden film Citizenfour leads pack in Oscar documentary category", The Guardian
  52. ↑ Oscars – Best Documentary Feature Betting Odds, Oddschecker.com, retrieved January 24, 2015 reports Citizenfour as a 3:13 favourite according to online bookmakers.
  53. ↑ Lang, Brent, Why 'Citizenfour' Deserves a Best Picture Oscar Nomination
  54. ↑ "Oscars: Can Edward Snowden Doc 'Citizenfour' Break the Best-Picture Curse?", The Hollywood Reporter, December 3, 2014
  55. ↑ "2013 GEORGE POLK AWARD WINNERS". Long Island University. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  56. ↑ Ridenhour Prizes. "The Ridenhour Prizes – Fostering the spirit of courage and truth". Ridenhour.org. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  57. ↑ English Material: Invitation for the Ceremonial act Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal 2014, Berlin: Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte (International league for human rights), December 10, 2014
  58. ↑ "Henri Nannen Award for Efforts for Independence of the Press". Bertelsmann.com. Bertelsmann. May 8, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  59. ↑ "Guardian and Washington Post win Pulitzer prize for NSA revelations". The Guardian (Press release). April 14, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  60. 1 2 3 Maass, Peter (August 13, 2013), "How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets", The New York Times
  61. ↑ Cadwalladr, Carole (November 9, 2014), "Berlin's digital exiles: where tech activists go to escape the NSA", The Guardian
  62. 1 2 Greenberg, Andy (October 15, 2014), "Laura Poitras on the Crypto Tools That Made Her Snowden Film Possible", Wired
  63. ↑ Macaulay, Scott (October 20, 2014), "Positive Trauma: Editor Mathilde Bonnefoy on CITIZENFOUR", Filmmaker magazine
  64. 1 2 Hernandez, Eugene (October 14, 2014), Silent No More, Laura Poitras Talks About 'CITIZENFOUR', Film Society of Lincoln Center
  65. ↑ Feinberg, Scott (September 16, 2014), "New York Film Fest: Top-Secret Edward Snowden Doc Added to Lineup", The Hollywood Reporter
  66. ↑ Higgins, Parker (October 29, 2014), The 7 Privacy Tools Essential to Making Snowden Documentary CITIZENFOUR, Electronic Frontier Foundation
  67. ↑ "This is what a Tor Supporter looks like: Laura Poitras".
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