Directed by
Laura Poitras
Laura Poitras
It is difficult to find meaningful ways
to critique Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour. The documentary isn’t simply about Edward
Snowden and the events of June 2013, when Snowden became a household name and
frequent topic of conversation at dinner tables across America and the globe –
the documentary is Edward
Snowden. With the exceptions of a
20-minute prologue and 20-minute epilogue, Snowden dominates nearly every
moment of screen time, whether it’s him in front of the camera discussing the classified
documents he leaked or whether it’s his words on a black screen in the form of
encrypted email messages sent to Poitras.
Citizenfour doesn’t attempt to
recreate the events leading to Snowden’s public downfall – the camera is there
with him every second of the way. It is
a little like watching the Zapruder footage of the Kennedy assassination –
sure, the image may be grainy and imperfect but as you’re watching it, you begin
to realize you’re watching not just a film strip but history being made before
your eyes.
Much
of the media coverage surrounding Snowden has remained ambivalent about his
actions as a whistleblower and enemy of the state. Was he a hero for exposing the government’s
intrusive surveillance policies, or was he a disgruntled traitor? This chasm within the Snowden narrative is no
doubt due in large part to the conflicting public attitudes in the United
States; according to one NBC News poll conducted in May 2014, more Americans opposed Snowden’s actions
than supported them. But three days
later, a poll by Tresorit revealed that 55 percent of respondents felt Snowden was
justified in exposing the NSA’s mass data-mining programs. Certainly Snowden would likely find support among
libertarians and conspiracy theorists fearful of governmental overreach, but does
mere support necessarily translate to exemption from standing trial?
There
is no such ambiguity in Citizenfour;
it is clear from the very opening moments of the film that Poitras and her
colleagues believe the CIA has overextended its powers and Snowden’s
actions, however unlawful they were, may represent the only forcible means of resistance
to NSA. And yet what makes Citizenfour so compelling is that in
spite of Poitras’ allegiance to Snowden (an allegiance which granted her closer
access to Snowden than practically anyone else on the planet), there remain many
unanswered questions about Snowden, the leaked documents, NSA policy, and just
how massive a surveillance network is at the control of a few select
individuals in great positions of political and military power. Poitras does not overtly attempt to sway
viewers into sympathizing with Snowden; instead, one walks away from Citizenfour with the distinct impression
that Snowden represents only one relatively minor pawn in a giant maelstrom
that, unless stopped, will produce many more troubling pieces to come.
The
opening of the film introduces a collage of several major figures and events
leading up to the Snowden leaks. We
witness a federal case in San Francisco where a government lawyer cloyingly argues
the NSA is not required to be held accountable at a judicial level since its
operations must remain classified. We briefly
meet William Binney, a former technical director for the NSA who is now its
most outspoken critic. We see Occupy
Wall Street meeting, where protestors are told to limit their use of credit cards
and metro passes because they contain data which can be monitored and tracked
by authorities. The point of these
scenes, I think, is to illustrate that Snowden’s actions were not unprecedented
and did not emerge out of a vacuum – that the cultural climate (not too many
years removed from the Patriot Act) was already rife with skepticism that the
internet truly provided privacy and a democratic platform for free speech.
Citizenfour shows
that what made the Snowden leaks so staggering were two major points: First,
that they linked NSA surveillance directives with the complicit actions of giant
telecoms such as Verizon and AT&T representing millions of consumers; and
second, that they contradicted virtually everything the NSA had said about its
surveillance programs in sworn testimony before Congress (we see excerpts from
this now-infamous exchange). Furthermore, Snowden’s
leaks showed that the NSA’s power was recklessly unchecked and uncalled for,
given that 90 percent of citizens surveyed represented no significant safety or
terrorist threat. And most troublesome
of all, the leaks contained President Obama’s explicit seal of approval.
But
generally speaking, this is the stuff we already know. What Citizenfour
offers is a firsthand look at the seven days in June 2013 in a cramped Hong
Kong hotel room, when Snowden agreed to meet in secret with Poitras and two journalists,
Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. For
the first couple of days, no one is really sure what to do. Snowden talks a little about his background
at the NSA and explains the inner-workings of a few of the NSA’s most
sophisticated and vast mining programs. The
four agree that at some point during the week the leaks will have to go public
through Wikileaks, but after that happens, no one is sure what will happen
next. In frank discussions, they
consider the difficulties in revealing Snowden’s identity; while they accept his inevitable legal repercussions, they agree that once Snowden becomes the public
face of the leaks, U.S. authorities will strategically shift the focus away
from the NSA and toward a menial personality examination.
So
what exactly do we learn about Edward Snowden? Very
little, in fact. We learn he was born
into a military family in North Carolina, but was raised in Maryland, that he
held a variety of positions within the CIA and had top-level clearance, and
that he is worried about his girlfriend’s well-being. He wears a white tee-shirt most of the time and
sits on his bed. He looks painfully
normal. He unplugs the phone in the room
and puts a towel over his head on occasion.
In one incredible sequence, the hotel fire alarm begin to sound and
Snowden and Greenwald anticipate authorities bursting into the room (we later find
out that it was only a fire drill). He
has a lot to say about the NSA and after being asked why he engaged in the
leaks, he appears genuine in his insistence that he cares about average
Americans and the threat of government surveillance to the foundations of a
democratic society. He is not an
anarchist or a terrorist or an ideologue, just a normal guy who gradually became
very cynical about the work he did without the ability to critically probe why
he was really doing it.
But
is Edward Snowden really that selfless and heroic? Let’s forget the obligatory high-minded
rhetoric from John Kerry
and others about being a traitor to the United States for a moment. As I watched the film, I found myself
wondering what other motivations, if any, led Snowden to leak the NSA’s
classified information and, in effect, ending his life in the United
States. Although you never get the sense in Citizenfour that Snowden is sniffing for
a book deal or appearance on Oprah,
something undeniably seems unsettling about him. I found myself wondering why it was him and
not someone else chose to come forward with this information. Why did it take so long? What is the real reason behind the reluctance
to talk about himself, and why doesn’t he mention any channels he went through
within the NSA chain of command? Isn’t
one of the lessons of this cynical postmodern world that everyone has a price
and a bottom line? And yet in that
initial skepticism, I found myself wondering if that wasn’t precisely what the
U.S. government wants me to think about Edward Snowden. It’s always easier to place blame on the
public actions of a single individual rather than the classified actions of
anonymous ones.
Citizenfour includes
only peripheral references to Obama. Snowden talks about his personal disappointment
at the President and toward the end of the film, we see a brief clip of Obama admitting
that while the Snowden’s questions were valid, his methods were not. Of course, what Obama excludes from this
statement is events such as the San Francisco federal court case at the
beginning of the film, where the plaintiffs attempted to use legal channels to
file complaints with the government, but were ultimately unsuccessful (even
when they received the support of judges).
Also overlooked is if tried in the United States, Snowden would be
charged with violating the Espionage Act, a grossly overinclusive, vague, and
virtually indefensible charge stemming from World War I. Why hasn’t Obama overturned (or at least
attempt to overturn) this anachronistic and censorious mandate? Although he is not intended to be the direct center
of blame, Obama comes off worse in this film than Dinesh D’Souza and anyone at Fox
News could have ever hoped for. As an
Obama voter in 2008 and 2012, the events depicted in Citizenfour are extremely disheartening and will leave a permanent tarnish
on a once-hopeful presidential legacy.
Poitras
states at the beginning that Citizenfour is
the third part of a trilogy examining America after 9/11. Snowden reached out to her after seeing the first
film in her trilogy, My Country, My Country (2006). Poitras is never
seen on camera nor does she speak, but the written narration informs us she is
now under strict surveillance by the Department of Homeland Security. Snowden is of course in Russia and will be
forced in all likelihood to stay there indefinitely. How this film was ever produced and released
by a major distributor (HBO Films) for a national theatrical release – keeping
in mind the security risks associated with Snowden and Poitras – is beyond
me. All I know is that somehow miraculously,
Citizenfour exists in complete form as
a great documentary and public record of history for everyone to see. And it should be the duty of every American
to see it.
Rating: 4 stars
