Citizenfour (2014), directed by Laura Poitras

It is difficult not to despair at the state of the body politic worldwide and it is no wonder that people are increasingly disengaged or voting a protest. Award-winning documentary Citizenfour only adds to this feeling. The film depicts Edward Snowden’s exposure of the US National Security Agency’s systematic and illegal spying on its citizens’ telecommunications. Snowden actually contacted the filmmaker prior to his leak and dramatic escape from the US, involving her in the whole process. The film therefore does not pretend to be an impartial examination of what happened, but is rather an actual documentation of events as they unfolded. Laura Poitras does a good job of sustaining interest in the story despite a lack of visuals other than talking heads. The real-time unfolding of major events adds to the tension, especially coverage of the persecution of the journalists involved in the leak and their families. Snowden comes across as a sincere whistle-blower, motivated by genuine concern about this truly shocking mass invasion of privacy, which turns out to have been authorised right from the top. It is disappointing to discover that President Obama is so much less than he promised to be in this area. This would indicate that murmurings of a last minute Presidential pardon for Snowden are laughable. The film doesn’t touch on the irony of Snowden finding refuge in Russia, which is made all the sharper by revelations of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. In the three years since Snowden’s leaks the focus has very much been on shooting the messenger, rather than investigating and prosecuting the original crime – that of the US security services. This film attempts to fan the flames of justifiable outrage, which seems to have died away, but is unfortunately likely just pissing in the wind.