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'Citizenfour' exposes Edward Snowden's message [Boston Herald](Boston Herald (MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 31--Whatever you may feel about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras' cinema verite exercise "Citizenfour" is an impressive piece of paranoid, political filmmaking. Beginning with a black screen and Poitras' voice delivering a dire warning about the security of her Internet communications, the film brings Poitras and her camera together in Hong Kong with incredibly young-looking and articulate Snowden and Salon.com reporter, author and lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who would soon join the ranks of the UK daily the Guardian. George Orwell is once again vindicated when we hear that the terms of the Patriot Act gave the government a free and arguably unpatriotic hand to bypass the Constitution and spy on its citizens without securing warrants. On the whole, the act is a deliberate evasion of the judicial branch of the government. "Citizenfour" -- Snow-den's e-mail pseudo-nym -- claims the NSA director "lied to Congress" and that communications giants- such as AT&T gave personal info of customers to the government. Poitras and Greenwald clearly worship Snowden. But his crazy story "is not science fiction." "Citizenfour" is like a John le Carre novel in documentary form. ("Citizenfour" contains profanity.) ___ (c)2014 the Boston Herald Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |