Citizenfour

In early 2013, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (The Oath) began receiving encrypted emails from a hacker named “CITIZENFOUR” who promised proof of illegal information-gathering programs run by the American government in concert with foreign intelligence agencies. Of course, that person turned out to be Edward Snowden, and at his request, Poitras brought her cameras to his Hong Kong hotel room to capture him and Guardian journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill as they prepared to break the largest civil-rights scandal in world history (Poitras also contributed articles). Most of Citizenfour unfolds against the antiseptic whiteness of that hotel room, and the terse visual palette recalls European arthouse cinema more than the Maysles. Instead of wallowing in “Go Team!” polemics or bowing to the cult of personality, Poitras crafts a stark and chilling portrait of a world where connection is the new terror.