Citizenfour (Laura Poitras, 2014) Germany, USA

Reviewed by Gordon Roach. Viewed at SBIFF 2015

As I swipe down my iphone for the notification widget I notice it says it will take me 6 minutes driving distance to state street. Coincidentally I’ve been traveling there often for this film festival.
After seeing this film I can’t help but view my freedom, privacy, what I thought I knew about my existence in a different light. Of course my apple is tracking where I’ve been going, after viewing this film the true reality of cyber privacy is setting in.

This eye opening documentary gives an intimate look at the unfolding of Ed Snowdens brave expose about unearthing the truth behind what the NSA and other big corporations have access to of the publics information.

While watching this film you get to witness the unfolding of the NSA scandal first hand before we discover who is behind this massive leak. What corresponds over the course of the film focuses its subject to glorifying the man rather then the subject at hand which was precisely what Snowden did not want to happen. In the film he declares over and over he wants the subject to be on the privacy issue rather then on himself as the leaker.

Some would argue what he did does deserve political persecution in the united states. I tend to not think so. I believe what he did was a risk and only a brave man such as himself would have done something he believed in.