Citizenfour [DVD]

A well made documentary that is gripping and informative.I thought I knew about the Snowden case, but this film provides the full picture. Anyone who still imagines Obama is a nice guy needs to wake up. His increase in surveillance of ordinary people is astounding and undemocratic. Every electronic communication is recorded - including this review - by the NSA. If your phone is in the room they can listen or watch you. The extent of this oppression is beyond science fiction, and we're living it! GCHQ is providing the same and more in the UK, and Snowden makes it clear that UK laws permit worse abuse than even the US citizens suffer.Without privacy we can have no liberty. They pretend it's about terrorism, but the reality is we have entered the era of technical oppression which has not yet revealed its true intentions. Time to throw away the gadgets, we need to deny this fascism.

My review recommends that: Everyone already mature enough to understand the importance of how modern societies based on available techniques any given time and the basics (positive or negative) that need to be clear to every human being, they should watch this unique documentary!

One of the finest docufilm. Apart from the publicly available documents and events, this film captures the emotions Ed Snowden went through the days leading to the publication. It is very well filmed by Laura. And this is the first film am watching in the trilogy by Laura. Now I'd go back in time to watch other 2 films. Like Snowden feared, all these revelations will one day swept under the carpet and the culpable agencies will tie noose around the pr-sm or t-mp-ra and restart the same functionality under different name. It happened before and it certainly will happen again. It is painful to see the fair journalism is at its worst times now. Mostly biased journalists get most airtime/mediaspace and people tend to believe the lies when it's said over and over again on air. Amongst those unfair people, it is very good to see people like Laura, Greenwald, and other like them dare to stand up for the right at-least most of the time if not all. Respect to the filmmaker and the brave people who came forward with right intention. A great movie indeed.

If you are interested in knowing the truth - then this is definitely worth watching. There is moment in the film when Snowden happens to mention that the American/British security forces are able to eaves drop on a conversation via your mobile phone even if it is turned off - it just has to be in the same location. This demonstrates how far the security forces have infiltrated our privacy with no mandate or authorisation from the general public or elected governments. Also, Snowden certainly does not come across as a traitor - quite the opposite - he has sabotaged his own life to make sure that the American/British public know whats being done in their name - so we are aware that they could well be spying on you or me if they choose - whether we are a legitimate target or not.

The documentary was engaging and very thought provoking.

Ed Snowden's revelations haven't had the impact he hoped they would have. While, on paper, the USA intelligence community has suffered some legal setbacks, in the UK things have actually evolved in the wrong direction (2015). They have, however, made one thing clear: we have become a surveillance society, worse in terms of technical abilities than what even Orwell could predict... there are of course no new revelations in the documentary, except for the existence of a second major source that has now been confirmed. But Snowden's presence and quiet unassuming charisma adds a welcome human dimension. Technical note: the version I received has been produced in Germany and you'll have only German sub-titles for the Brazilian segments.

A fascinating and amazing story about lengths the US government will go to know everything and deny they are doing it (we were lying for national security reasons) but I wonder how many people will watch this documentary twice. The problem I found with Laura Poitras's film is that the subject isn't really visual. This would have been a wonderful long forme article in the New Yorker, Atlantic or Vanity Fair where copy editors knock it into shape to make every word count. Thankfully there is no print equivalent of out of focus camera work, visual padding with no commentary, white noise background sound (prevalent at the start of the film) or sloppy filming of three men, in a Hong Kong hotel, discussing how to leak secrets. It could all have been summed up in several thousand words and two or three photos in a magazine.

A must watch for everyone whether you believe in freedom and privacy you should watch this. I remember the 80's when we all thought how bad it must be to live in Russia under the watch of the KGB but the reality is now you are under a level so high they would be amazed if they had that amount of control. All in the name of protecting your freedom and the pursuit of crime as long as you tow the line.