Typically, documentaries rely heavily on statistical evidence and facts to show the audience proof that their problem is real. However, Citizenfour relies on none of these, and instead relies solely on personal experience and expert testimony as evidence. While, most people may see this as a weakness, in this case, for Citizenfour, it is understandable, due to the content of the documentary. Essentially, the whole documentary is one big personal experience, since majority of the film is spent in Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room, while he is hiding from the United States government. Here, Snowden and Greenwald, plan on how to continue their reporting, and how to make Snowden’s confession public. Through this, Poitras is able to collect what appears to be raw footage of Snowden’s reactions to the decision-making process, and eventually, the rest of the world finally discovering who he is. This not only, shows the audience what was going on in real time for Snowden, but also shows the complications with it, and how quickly the United States located him. By capturing Snowden’s real-time reactions, Poitras is also able to include a dramatic element to the film by simply showing how this …show more content…
Most notably, their raid on his office, where he, by his report was held at gunpoint, while the FBI confiscated sensitive documents. (6:41) By including this testimony, Poitras is able to show the audience how crucial it was for the government to keep their actions a secret. Especially by including that they raided their employee’s office with the capabilities to end his life. More importantly, she shows the audience how far back the NSA whistleblower scandal goes, since Binney was calling the government out on virtually the same grievances as Snowden, but only twelve years
Edward Snowden is a whistleblower from the 21st century. Snowden was a man who had outstanding IT skills and eventually landed a job at the NSA. He gained access to numerous files that showed the crimes the NSA was committing against its own people and against other countries as well. They were spying on people’s privacy and claimed that it was for the national security that would benefit all people. Snowden said that he could not let this
GasLand, a documentary by Josh Fox, is an extremely informative film about the negative externalities that consumers have to incur since they live in close proximity to a hydrofracking facility. Throughout the film, Fox travels around the country and meets with families that have been negatively impacted by fracking companies moving into their communities. Due to the amount of pollution that hydrofracking can cause, many of the families that Fox meets with no longer have the luxury of clean water supplied through their faucets. GasLand really opened up my eyes to the dangers of hydrofracking, and the negative externalities that consumers have to bear.
I will use this interview to explain why Snowden in his own words, whistleblowed. As this interview is a primary source, it allows Snowden to defend himself as well as help me form my thesis in which direction I may take it. This interview has refreshed my knowledge on the psyche of Snowden as well as logically think about how he viewed what the government was doing as well as his thoughts on our country. Library, CNN.
(Topic Sentence)It is important that everyone works together to make schools a safe learning environment for everyone. (Background Info) In 1980, Jamie Nabozny, a student in Wisconsin, was a victim of harassment. In the beginning, he was verbally insulted; then he was physically harassed, being punched, kicked and slapped for being gay. Jamie would return to his peaceful home with the taste of blood in his mouth, headaches from all the insults, and teary eyes that he never showed to his parents.Throughout his middle school to high school life he overwent various harrassments and threats to the point where he ran away to the city to feel safe. (Attention Grabber) Have you ever been bullied before to the point of running away? Jamie Nabozny has
“The Most Wanted Man in the World”, by James Bamford speaks of an interview with a whistle-blower named Edward Snowden and what the process was for him to be considered the “most wanted man in the world”. James Bamford wanted to speak with Edward for some time in order to get an insight on what actually happen with him getting his hands on illegal files that he should have not obtained. During the interview with Edward, Bamford noticed small details about Edward and what type of person he was. Edward Snowden is a strong believer in the Constitution as he believes the government is listening in on people’s conversations without anyone’s consent or knowledge. In Edward Snowden words he states,” And if we’re analyzing all traffic flows, that
Another thing that I thought about after watching this documentary is what my mom has told, my mom tells me that “Jerome you can be right all you want but if you don’t be quiet you can get caught up in situations” and this documentary has opened my eyes to this because once I feel that i’m right there is nothing that you can tell me and I would try to prove you wrong, but after watching this i’m going to have to change my ways. Another thing that I’ve heard a lot was “the top 10% ruled the country” after hearing about ALEC 80% of me believes this, I mean Alec has proposed a lot of the bills that we have today. Overall I feel that this documentary was very informative and has opened my eyes wider on the issue of
After reading the article, "Why Edward Snowden is a Hero," by John Cassidy, it brings a new
In 2012, Snowden then started to work for Booz Allen Hamilton. When he started working for him, he starts to observe and discovered information that was very disturbing. He found out that the government was spying on people through a number of programs such as PRISM. There he began to collect documents from a file or dossier containing information on the NSA’s surveillance practices. After realizing that one team had a problem with their work he stopped his mission, and tried to get the document.
The entire documentary itself is a narration. Due to the documentary being in the format of a narration, it set up the entire film to incorporate anecdotes and other modes of discourse. Through the use of anecdotes of multiple activists throughout the entire film, specifically the one on Daniel McGowan, the viewer is able to get a good idea of how far these people are willing to go for their cause. For example, Daniel was telling his story of his last operation with the ELF, and he had to put gasoline around the entire house and in all of the vehicles which are hooked up to an explosive device. Daniel knew about the consequences of this action and yet he still went forth with it.
The government, specifically the NSA and Obama Administration have been embarrassed by the leaks. Their aim is to bring Snowden back to the US for prosecution and have him be the next target under the Espionage Act for whistleblowers. Under the Obama Administration there have been double the amount of people prosecuted under the act than any other previous administration in history since the enacting. (Greenberg, 2014) It seems that Snowden has seen an unfairness and gross abuse of power and has felt compelled to bring these things to light for the public interest, and for the global stage. The need for change from such actions, the employment of fear to strip the public’s rights and privacies, and the use of mining centers to take all our data to whatever government end has all been shown. They (the government) is not particularly happy with the revealed truths behind their hidden programs. The fact they label it under the Espionage Act as to say Snowden has aided our enemies in breaching national security is, to the open minded and intelligent, a cowardly move, since our “enemies” already have known
Virunga was a documentary that was created in 2014 to bring to people’s attention the problems that were occurring in Virunga. It was directed by Orlando Von Einsiedel and it took place in Virunga National Park, East Congo. The movie showed how people were were being selfish and greedy with the resources in virunga for example, at the beginning of the movie it said people would kill the parents and sell the babies. A major problem that the movie showed was a civil war in virunga. This was very devastating especially since they had worked to protect this area. Then the next big problem was that a British company called Soco International started to look for oil in the UNESCO Heritage in the spring. Between civil war, poaching and people digging
To start with, Trailblazer was not constitutional. It was going to allow NSA to spy on American people. Hence, people are on Drakes side on this issue, since he allowed them to know about it. Besides, this program was a failure to begin with. It cost a lot of taxpayers’ money (The Secret Sharer). Even if it was a constitutional thing, its failure would have turned people against it anyway. Besides, public attitude toward whistleblowers have improved according to “Whistle-blower’s Dilemma”. Media coverage has improved too. People have started to appreciate them, because they rise up against corrupt systems and let people know about the truth. Hence, I think Binney should have spoken out against NSA in the beginning, since he would have the publics opinion on his side. “If used carefully, the Internet can also be a boon to whistle-blowers; anonymous remailers let people send e-mail that can't be traced to its source, and Web sites make it easier both to publicize wrongdoing and to offer advice to whistle-blowers” (Whistle-blower’s Dilemma). With the internet, it has become easier for the whistleblowers to share information with the public and to win their
1. Identify 2 moments in each of the films that most resonated with you or made you feel most uncomfortable and why they had that effect on you?
I found the movie Snowden to be shocking and eye opening. Watching the progression of Edward Snowden is interesting from when he is a die hard American to quite the opposite by the end. Snowden was almost like watching a fictional crime show where none of the situations could possibly be real. The fact that the government can spy on us doesn't seem to be real. I think people believe no one will spy on them, or they have nothing to hide, or of what importance are they to the government, but in reality each person matters to them because we all equal money. Seeing how the government tracks people makes those people tracking seem superior, as if they have the controls to a video game, and in some ways they do. The amount of conning shows me
Throughout the film and despite the numerous firefights, we were able to see a small portion of the impact of the airstrikes and gun shooting impact on the village’s civilians. in my opinion, the film only attempted to show the lethal aftermath of war on soldiers, but we were able to capture the impact it left on the innocent villagers as well whether the film director did it internationally or not. Many may think that it’s only just the Americans soldiers in the movie who suffer losses, though we also see the devastating effect of an air strike on a home in a village. We see injured women and children standing around, terrified and helpless as the Americans go through the rubble looking for weapons. In one shot a man stands in silence holding