Citizenfour Film Analysis

Is the price of safety worth the loss of privacy? In June of 2013 civil rights lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald published on The Guardian the first of numerous articles containing files he’d received from former NSA sub contractor Edward Snowden. These files revealed unbeknownst to the American public details about multiple global surveillance programs currently being used by the United States NSA to collect their private data. Greenwald’s speech on “Why Privacy Matters,” during the TEDGlobal 2014 conference was compelling & deeply insightful. By providing the audience with credible knowledge of his research in addition to the use persuasive emotional and logical reasoning, Glenn Greenwald effectively argues the importance of privacy.

Edward Snowden. This is a name that will be in the history books for ages. He will be branded a traitor or a whistleblower depending on where you look. Many Americans feel that Edward Snowden is a traitor who sold the United States’ secrets aiming to harm the nation. Others believe that he was simply a citizen of the United States who exercised his right to expose the government for their unconstitutional actions. It is important to not only know the two sides to the argument of friend or foe, but to also know the facts as well. My goal in this paper is to present the facts without bias and to adequately portray the two sides of the argument.

This article argues that surveillance is becoming increasingly normal across the USA and the world and that this is changing our freedom and security. It mentioned that globalization and migration of people from different countries some who threaten our country has made this surveillance more necessary to protect our citizens from theorists acts. The article uses examples of video-surveillance to make this case and to argue for both stronger resistances to calls to make our human rights more flexible in a risky time.

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former NSA subcontractor leaked secret information about the levels of surveillance the NSA partakes in. "After only three months, Snowden began collecting top-secret documents regarding NSA domestic surveillance practices, which he found disturbing. After Snowden fled to Hong Kong, China, newspapers began printing the documents that he had leaked to them, many of them detailing invasive spying practices against American citizens" ("Edward Snowden"). The U.S. is now charging Snowden under the Espionage Act, and is attempting to extradite him ("Edward Snowden"). This situation is comparable with the confrontation that occurs between the Director and Bernard Marx in Brave New World, when the Director says of Marx that: "The security and stability of Society are in danger. This man who stands before you here has grossly betrayed the trust imposed in him. By his heretical views on sport and soma, by the scandalous unorthodoxy of his sexlife, and by his refusal to obey the teachings of Our Ford, he has proved himself an enemy of Society, a subverter of all Order and Stability, and a conspirator against Civilization itself" (Huxley 149). This passage displays how Marx's attempts to break himself from the mold created for him by the government and to share his opinion of his society's

On June 6, 2013, The Guardian published a story about the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Internet surveillance program, PRISM (Greenwald and MacAskill 2013). The story was based on documents leaked by one of the most successful whistle-blowers in American history, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents that Snowden has released up to this time have shown the NSA to be heavily engaged in the collection of personal Internet activity, bulk collection of telephone "metadata," and other forms of surveillance that have brought U.S. intelligence practices into question.

Described as a terrifying and eye-opening thriller, Citizenfour, a documentary directed by Laura Poitras, follows the case of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who revealed the truth behind the National Security Agency surveillance programs in the United States. Throughout the movie, we first-handedly experience the obstacles Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for The Guardian, need to overcome, in order to share Snowden’s story and help him spread the information he leaked. Along those lines, the documentary begins with several encrypted emails received by Poitras from an anonymous sender nicknamed “Citizenfour” who later turns out to be Snowden. A few months later, Poitras and Greenwald partner up and meet Snowden in Hong Kong, where

In John Cassidy's article that depicted Snowden as an individual for his actions, spying domestically was an issue most citizens were shocked about. How can one agency see and watch all everywhere? Upon this declaration that was plastered along news threads and the media, Edward has been named a criminal under the law. His act of courage allowed millions to acknowledge the fact of not believing everything they hear. The National Security Agency's programs are now being questioned because of their dishonesty and lack of accurate information for the public. Because of Edward Snowden's undaunted exploit of private government files, tech agencies have furthered their search for better security so that their users can feel safe even in the midst of mass surveillance. Yet, despite several dangerous targets on his back, Snowden remains to believe in his action being done with pure intentions. Speaking bravely

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

"Snowden" is a biopic about Edward Snowden, the man who is known for exposing the deceits of the NSA. Snowden, a computer wizz, former Central Intelligence Agency employee, and previous contractor for the government, easily became one of the most wanted men in America when he exposed just how little privacy the civilians of Americans had before the issue was resolved. The film "Snowden" can be divided into three parts. First being the story of Snowden's discovery of the government's way of surveillance. Second being Snowden's relationship with Lindsay Mills and how this affected his work with highly classified jobs. Lastly being the story of how Snowden released what he knew and how he was able to get out of the NSA.

In this essay I speak about the historical documentary Citizenfour , This document describes or explains the meeting of Edward Snowden who is an American technology consultant , informer and former employee of the CIA and NSA ; With one journalists who helped reveal to the world the mayor massive spying known. Creating a film where is the information not the music that makes us realize that we are not watching science fiction. Referring to the issue of security the NSA, the CIA and GCHQ we can conclude that not all people agree with this series of policies either for convenience or lack privacy. This is because these policies "violate " our privacy. So it is to be aware or security issues.

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the

Privacy has endured throughout human history as the pillar upon which our authentic nature rests. Yet, in an age darkened by the looming shadow of terrorism, another force threatens to dominate the skyline and obscure the light of liberty behind promises of safety and security: government surveillance. As an employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden broke his vow of secrecy to inform the public of our government’s furtive surveillance acts, but does this render him traitorous? To answer this, we must first ask ourselves, traitorous to whom? When the very institution established to protect our fundamental liberties intrudes on our privacy from behind a veil of secrecy, should such informed individuals resign from judicious autonomy and

The Oscar-winning documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras is about Edward Snowden, the young man who, with top-secret access to NSA databases, made available to the public troves of sensitive data and more importantly insight into the tactics that the U.S. government is using to collect such data, with the potential to spy on any American for any reason, not just for terrorism. “Citizenfour” unfolds roughly in three acts. The first is a primer on how the US War on Terror has encouraged the National Security Agency to expand its reach and invade upon private communications, sometimes unconstitutionally. The second act, the longest, stressful and most claustrophobic, concerns Poitras' trip to meet Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel, a trip arranged

The picture painted of Snowden in Citizenfour is that of a calm and honest man whose actions were for public service. While this may very well have been the case, the documentary doesn’t speak much of the fact that Snowden disclosed highly classified information without any authorization, which is criminal in nature. If Snowden selected said files that were illegal in nature to expose, the mass file dump that ensued could have been avoided. Snowden stole well over a million intelligence files and provided complete access to Glenn Greenwald without knowing how he’d use the information. In the end, Greenwald only decided to publish 4 of the 41 slides of a single relevant file to the general public. Even though he did manage to expose illegal

In early 2013 a man by the name of Edward Joseph Snowden began leaking classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to media outlets, which in turn ended up in public ears. These documents, mainly involving intelligence Snowden acquired while working as an NSA contractor, are mostly related to global surveillance programs run by the NSA. This has raised multiple ethical issues ranging from national security, information privacy and the ethics behind whistleblowing in general. The reach and impact of these leaks have gone global and have put in question the very government that protects us as well as the extent of the public’s rights on privacy. Various foreign