Citizenfour (2014)

Director
Laura Poitras

Main cast
Edward Snowden; Julian Assange; Glenn Greenwald; Jacob Appelbaum; Kevin Bankston

Genres
Documentary

Description
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes. Poitras is a great and brave filmmaker, but she is also a masterful storyteller: she compresses the many days of questioning, waiting, confirming, watching the world’s reaction and agonizing over the next move, into both a great character study of Snowden and a narrative that will leave you on the edge of your seat as it inexorably moves toward its conclusion.


Similar movies

A look at the War on Terror and the threat it's causing to our civil liberties and political discourse. Academy Award nominee James Cromwell presents Janek Ambros' directorial debut. The feature doc tackles the War on Terror's impact on civil liberties and the strange coalition it's creating between the progressive left and libertarian right. The doc examines the NSA, drones, the war on journalism and other encroachments on civil liberties started by the Bush era and expanded by the Democratic establishment.
Russian hints that the country could hand over America's most wanted whistle blower as a favor to Donald Trump place Edward Snowden in even greater danger than before. A secret meeting between global freedom and civil rights campaigners Snowden, Birgitta Jonsdottir and Larry Lessig turns into a freewheeling discussion about the future of democracy.
"Snowden’s Great Escape" tells the story of how Edward Snowden managed to evade capture by the US. For the first time Snowden tells the story of how he managed to escape so that not to have to spend the rest of his life in an American prison.
Tells the story of two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Get up close and personal with 16 of the most successful women in the adult film industry as they shed their clothes for an intimate photo shoot with director Deborah Anderson. As questions are asked, personal stories about their lives are revealed, from why they chose the business of sex to how they got into it in the first place. These porn stars have always been discreet about their private lives in the past, yet Anderson has a way of opening up a dialog allowing them to share more than just their naked skin on screen. Their true inner vulnerability is touching, yet the characters they have created are confident and intoxicating. Once you hear their stories, you'll never look at them in the same way again.
This documentary about Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished 1964 psycho-thriller L’Enfer is as tantalizing as it is frustrating. Despite remaining one of the most masterful of French directors, Cluozot inexplicably seems to have lost control on the big-budget production of L’Enfer. The long-lost raw footage is intriguing and dazzling, infused with swirling lights and blue-lipped, cigarette-puffing fantasy temptresses. Although directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Mederea have managed to speak to numerous members of the original crew, this behind-the-scenes investigation has so little to say about the reasons behind Clouzot’s failure to complete the film. In spite of this, the undiminished power of Clouzot’s extraordinary images makes the documentary a fascinating watch.
Examines the public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary director Roman Polanski's sudden flight from the United States.
Jones covers what he believes are terrorist attacks induced by governments throughout history, most particularly the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans (the film shares the same name as Evans's famous 1994 autobiography).
Documentary about freedom defense movements on Internet.
With the rapid emergence of digital devices, an unstoppable, invisible force is changing human lives in ways from the microscopic to the gargantuan: Big Data, a word that was barely used a few years ago but now governs the day for many of us from the moment we awaken to the extinguishing of the final late-evening light bulb. This massive gathering and analyzing of data in real time is allowing us to not only address some of humanity biggest challenges but is also helping create a new kind of planetary nervous system. Yet as Edward Snowden and the release of the Prism documents have shown, the accessibility of all these data comes at a steep price. The Human Face of Big Data captures the promise and peril of this extraordinary knowledge revolution.
Have you ever read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies connected to every website you visit, phone call you make, or app you use? Of course you haven’t. But those agreements allow corporations to do things with your personal information you could never even imagine. This film explores the intent hidden within these ridiculous agreements, and reveals what corporations and governments are legally taking from you and the outrageous consequences that result from clicking “I accept.”
War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State highlights four cases where whistleblowers noticed government wrong-doing and took to the media to expose the fraud and abuse. It exposes the surprisingly worsening and threatening reality for whistleblowers and the press. The film includes interviews with whistleblowers Michael DeKort, Thomas Drake, Franz Gayl and Thomas Tamm and award-winning journalists like David Carr, Lucy Dalglish, Glenn Greenwald, Seymour Hersh, Michael Isikoff, Bill Keller, Eric Lipton, Jane Mayer, Dana Priest, Tom Vanden Brook and Sharon Weinberger.
Filmmaking icon Agnès Varda, the award-winning director regarded by many as the grandmother of the French new wave, turns the camera on herself with this unique autobiographical documentary. Composed of film excerpts and elaborate dramatic re-creations, Varda's self-portrait recounts the highs and lows of her professional career, the many friendships that affected her life and her longtime marriage to cinematic giant Jacques Demy.
A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people.
Alex Jones exposes the growing militarization of American law enforcement and the growing relationship between the military and police. Witness US training with foreign troops and learning how to control and contain civilian populations. You will see Special Forces helicopter attacks on South Texas towns, concentration camps, broad unconstitutional police actions, search and seizure and more.
Chronicles the six-decade career of the U.S. film industry's most diverse, dogged and resourceful low-budget producer-director-entrepeneur, painting the soft-spoken Roger Corman as an indie cinema trailbrazer as well as an extraordinary conduit for new talent.
Documentary about the life of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, who led the independent film movement of the 1940s.
Only 11 Americans have ever been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917; eight of them since President Obama took office. James Spione returns to TFF with the incredible personal journeys of two members of that octet, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou, along with accountability advocate, Jesselyn Radack, who helped bring their cases to light. With resonance in the post-Snowden era, Silenced catalogs the lengths to which the government has gone to keep its most damning secrets quiet, in an impassioned and thought-provoking defense of whistleblowers everywhere.
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
A revolutionary film about the cinematic genius of North Korea's late Dear Leader Kim Jung-IL, with a groundbreaking experiment at its heart - a propaganda film, made according to the rules of his 1987 manifesto. Through the shared love of cinema, AIM HIGH IN CREATION! forges an astonishing new bond between the hidden filmmakers of North Korea and their Free World collaborators. Revealing an unexpected truth about the most isolated nation on earth: filmmakers, no matter where they live, are family.
In the early-morning hours of July 23, 2007, in Cheshire, Conn., ex-convicts Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the family home of Dr. William Petit, his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied to a pole in the basement. The three women were bound in their bedrooms while the men ransacked the house. The brutal ordeal continued throughout the morning, ending with rape, arson and a horrific triple homicide.
Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Cinema's prodigal daughter Jennifer Lynch braves the unmapped territory of Bollywood-Hollywood movie making, where chaos is the process and filmmaking doubles as a crash course in acceptance and self-realization.
Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas in 2009, only four doctors in the United States continue to perform third-trimester abortions. These physicians, all colleagues of Dr. Tiller, sacrifice their safety and personal lives in the name of their fierce, unwavering conviction to help women.
Amanda (Marlee Maitlin) is a divorced woman who makes a living as a photographer. During the Fall of the year Amanda begins to see the world in new and different ways when she begins to question her role in life, her relationships with her career and men and what it all means. As the layers to her everyday experiences fall away insertions in the story with scientists, and philosophers and religious leaders impart information directly to an off-screen interviewer about academic issues, and Amanda begins to understand the basis to the quantum world beneath. During her epiphany as she considers the Great Questions raised by the host of inserted thinkers, Amanda slowly comprehends the various inspirations and begins to see the world in a new way.
Directors Nina Kusturica and Eva Testor followed Michael Haneke for a period of two and a half years. They accompanied him to film premieres and public appearances, radio interviews and photo shoots; they observed him as he scouted locations, directed actors on the set, and made final cuts in the editing room. In between, on long train and car rides, Haneke spoke candidly about his childhood, his transition to filmmaking, and his views on cinema, discussing films that inspired him and his own work (he counts The Seventh Continent and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance among his favorites). What emerges in this insightful documentary is a portrait of a dedicated filmmaker, a charming yet elusive figure in thrall to cinema and the constant perfection of his craft.
CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.
Estranged by the degree of corporate influence within the largest U.S. listening station in the world, an aging NSA officer defects and mounts a clandestine counter-listening station high in the Italian alps.
"Let Me Borrow Your Wife". This is a light comedy from Edith Carlmar, Norways first woman director. It takes place in a company that sells baby toys. It is time to fill a leading position, and it is known the owner of the company only places married men on leading positions. This leads a young bachelor to "borrow" his best friends wife to have a chance at the position. This leads to a lot of comic misunderstandings, not the least because the owner of the company himself falls for the new young wife.
Freya McAllister suddenly starts hearing voices in her head on the night of her High School Prom. One night Dr Michael Welles arrives telling Freya that she isn't crazy but that her voices are the thoughts of everyone around her. He teaches her to turn her telepathic powers into a powerful gift. What he doesn't say is that he works for the National Security Agency...
Simon is a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code. This skill renders the new billion-dollar secret code vulnerable, especially if enemies of the United States should learn of Simon's abilities and capture him. Program chief Nick Kudrow orders the "security threat" eliminated, but Kudrow hasn't counted on renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis).
Hotshot Washington lawyer Robert Dean becomes a victim of high-tech identity theft when a hacker slips an incriminating video into his pocket. Soon, a rogue National Security agent sets out to recover the tape -- and destroy Dean.
Monsieur Cinema, a hundred years old, lives alone in a large villa. His memories fade away, so he engages a young woman to tell him stories about all the movies ever made. Also a line of movie stars comes to visit him giving him back the pleasure of life - but amongst them there are also some young students only striving after his money for the realization of their film projects. The two stories - Monsieur Cinema's and the young people's life - are told in parallel until they come together in the end when the old man plays a role in the film made by the students.
Corky, a tough female ex con and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet's crooked boyfriend Caeser.
When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking "black box" from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his "sneakers" must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box back from their blackmailers.
The films tells the story of Count Jones (Bejamín Rausseo), a far cousin of Indiana Jones, who is called by the North American government, the Interpol and other international security agencies in order to find a strange mythologic object called "The Crystal Creole Ball", which, if captured by Venezuelan military leader, Er General (Chile Veloz), could lead him to win the upcoming presidential elections. To find the location of the mythologic ball, Count Jones needed to travel to Paris, Libano, Jordania, Egypt, the United States and finally Venezuela, in which most of the story happens. Throughout the story, Count Jones had to find his niece, Melissa Jones, who is also his love interest, and travel with her and his nephew Goyito (Honorio Torrealba Jr.), who finally betrays Jones and brings the ball to Er General.
Recently released from a mental hospital, Ricky ties up Marina, a film star he once had sex with and keeps her hostage.
When Alex, an infiltration expert with a secret past, accidentally reveals her identity during what should have been a routine heist, she quickly finds herself mixed up in a government conspiracy and entangled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a master assassin and his team of killers. Armed with her own set of lethal skills, Alex looks to exact revenge for her murdered friends while uncovering the truth.
Jose Stern, an erstwhile indie-rocker relegated to playing children's birthday parties, is on the verge of turning 40 and at a crossroads in his life.
Hannah is a young woman who lives on her own. She starts to get this feeling that she is being watched. The phone starts ringing at night and when she answers, no one is there. Is she imagining everything or is it for real?
The story revolves around a Spring, a hitman from mainland China who is on a mission in Hong Kong with his partner Setting Sun. However, Spring falls ill and comes under the care of a screenwriter by the name of Soya and they find themselves developing into a tight and everlasting friendship.
Audrey and Morgan, two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.
In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.
The year is 1919. German troops retreat from Ukraine. The Directory, the Ukrainian national government lead by Symon Petliura, takes control of Kyiv. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik division commanded by Mykola Shchors is marching on the capital. The Bolsheviks capture the cities of Vinnytsia, Zhmerynka, and others one by one, but lose Berdychiv to Petliura’s forces. They are demoralized by the defeat. By his personal example of courage and military skill, Shchors inspires the retreating Red troops and leads them to victory over the enemy.
Abby Collins's quiet life as a wife and mother shows no trace of her past work as a military special-ops expert -- until the day her husband is kidnapped. With no alternative, Abby must resort to her long-dormant lethal skills to save her spouse.
A patient being psychoanalyzed by Dr. Snow is a government scientist. General Pratt hides him in a secret place known as "Base X," forcing Dr. Snow to wear a blindfold whenever he is taken there ...
A young Italian actress embarks on a self-destructive spree of sex, drugs and other excess while doing some soul searching to find the path for redemption.
This film focuses on an aging starlette (Silvia Perez) was once an it-girl. She returns to her hometown for her niece's birthday party and has to deal with her conservative family who does not agree with her chosen lifestyle.
Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) works in an elite division of the FBI dedicated to fighting cybercrime. She thinks she has seen it all, until a particularly sadistic criminal arises on the Internet. This tech-savvy killer posts live feeds of his crimes on his website; the more hits the site gets, the faster the victim dies. Marsh and her team must find the elusive killer before time runs out.
As single mom Grace juggles work, bills, and her affair with a married doctor, her daughter, Ansiedad, plots a shortcut to adulthood after finding inspiration in the coming-of-age stories she's reading for school.
An Air Force captain inadvertently volunteers to make the first manned flight around the moon. He immediately falls under the watchful protection of various security agencies, but despite all their precautions, a young woman who may be an enemy spy succeeds in making contact with the captain. The captain eventually discovers that this woman is not an enemy but rather a friend from a very unusual source.
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
Jarod reunites with two old friends and unleashes some powerful Centre revelations. Also Jarod and Miss Parker learn more about their pasts.
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?"
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
Three flatmates in Mexico City face uncertainties: Lucía who has a great job as an art director for TV commercials is abusing alcohol and cocaine. She risks losing her job, going to prison for assault, and she's woefully in love with a bullfighter who may be two-timing her. Carmen, an artist without income, can be manic - snorting lots of cocaine and hanging out with a gay man and a transvestite. What's her future? Hanna contemplates divorce from Abraham, a wealthy momma's boy, and she's disoriented by feelings of attraction to Sandra, a customer at her jewelry store. Can any of these poor little rich girls sort things out in a world of excess?
Telly Paretta is a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her 8-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist reveals that she has created eight years of memories about a son she never had. But when she meets a man who has had a similar experience, Telly embarks on a search to prove her son's existence, and her sanity.

© Valossa 2015–2024