12. Mai: Citizenfour (OV)

Inside the mind of a whistle blower

When Laura Poitras receives an encrypted mail in early 2013, offering information about illegal wiretapping practices of the NSA and other intelligence agencies, at first she can’t believe what she is reading. But cautiously she accepts all demands of encryption and secrecy of this mysterious “Citizen Four”. She has already been working on a film about the monitoring programs in the US after the terrorist attacks on September 11, and this could be her big breakthrough.

When they finally agree on meeting in the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, she brings her colleagues, the investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian intelligence reporter Ewen MacAskill with her. But none of these three Journalists has an idea of how big of a surprise the source, that introduces himself as Edward Snowden, has prepared for them.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras paints a frankly terrifying picture of the loss of liberty involved in the widespread government gathering of the communication done by ordinary Joes on a daily basis. (Toronto Sun)