February’s Film: Academy Award winning documentary CITIZENFOUR

By DAN ONORATO

2014’s Academy Award winning documentary CITIZENFOUR is a real-life international thriller that unfolds by the minute.

Documentarian Laura Poitras had already been working on a film about surveillance for two years when Snowden contacted her, using the name “CITIZENFOUR,” in January 2013. He reached out to her because he knew she had long been a target of government surveillance, stopped at airports numerous times, and had refused to be intimidated. When Snowden revealed he was a high-level analyst driven to expose the massive surveillance of Americans by the NSA, Poitras persuaded him to let her film.

With unprecedented access, this gripping behind-the-scenes chronicle follows award-winning director Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s remarkable encounters with whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a hotel room in Hong Kong, as he hands over classified documents that provide evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA).

CITIZENFOUR places you in the room with Poitras, Greenwald, and Snowden as they attempt to manage the media storm raging outside, forced to make quick decisions that will impact their lives and all of those around them.

The documentary not only shows the dangers of governmental surveillance, but makes audiences feel them. After seeing the film, viewers will never think the same way about their phone, e-mail, credit cards, web browser or digital footprint again.

The film will be shown at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, February 17 at the Center, 720 13^th St., Modesto. Discussion will follow.