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Laura PoitrasBesetzung:
Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney, Jacob Appelbaum, Laura Poitras, Julian Assange, Jesselyn Radack (Arch.), Barack Obama (Arch.) (mehr)Inhalte(1)
Im Januar 2013 erhielt die amerikanische Dokumentarfilmerin Laura Poitras, die mit kritischen Filmen über den Irak-Krieg und das US-Gefangenenlager Guantànamo bekannt wurde, erstmals verschlüsselte Emails von einem gewissen „Citizenfour". Deren Inhalt war brisant. Es ging um Beweise für die maßlose Überwachung durch die NSA. Fünf Monate später reiste Poitras mit dem Journalisten Glenn Greenwald nach Hongkong und traf dort einen jungen Mann: Edward Snowden. Der Rest ist Geschichte. Acht Tage lang interviewten Greenwald und sein Kollege Ewen MacAskill den Computerspezialisten, Poitras dokumentierte mit der Kamera. Die ersten Enthüllungsartikel erschienen und am Ende outete sich Snwoden als Whistleblower. Seitdem wissen wir, dass die USA und ihre engsten Verbündeten private Telefon- und Internetkommunikation ausspähen, entsprechende Daten sammeln und damit weltweit die Privatsphäre von Millionen von Menschen verletzen. (Piffl-Medien)
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This is exactly why people should watch documentaries. They will learn quite a bit from a relatively credible source. You can also make your own picture of what you see. Snowden is an interesting character and obviously paranoid, but what he presents is just an example that security is something that may not be as secure nowadays.
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you, in other words avoid a fire alarm at all costs. A (non)conspiracy thriller par excellence in the form of an unfinished documentary. I understand that when they started filming, they still couldn't know exactly how it would progress and what would be unleashed, but that does not justify the poor dramaturgy done "in the editing room" during the completion. Maybe it should have been made later than only after one year or it should have not covered so many topics. It's a little bit about Snowden, but not that much. It's a little bit about the phenomenon of whistleblowing, but not that much. It's a little bit about the leaked materials, but not that much. It's a little bit about moral and ethical issues, what to publish/hide, but not that much. It's a bit about secret government programs, but not that much. It's a bit about the work of investigative journalists and the media in general, but not that much. It's a bit about everything from this department, because a lot of things are briefly mentioned but only a little is actually said and even less that we wouldn't (in the meantime) already know from elsewhere. None of the above, however, means that it would be bad or uninteresting. It's just wasted rather than anything else, because having the possibility to talk to an unprecedented source during (even after) such historical event calls for so much more than Laura Poitras did. Because he was afraid to ask Snowden displeasing questions. Others had to do that for him. PS: Citizienfour is a perfect example of the type of documentary in which the "importance" of the chosen event/topic is often (and easily) confused with the "importance" of the documentary as such.
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