Citizenfour

I’ll start off by saying this is one of my favorite documentaries, one of the few I have rewatched of my own volition.

While the story told in Citizenfour is incredible, it isn’t what sets this film apart. Documentaries are usually made with a subject in mind and, if they are about an event, feature a mix of archival footage, recreation, and interview, Almost never does someone realize they are living through historic events and, without knowing what those events were exactly, pick up a camera and make a documentary. However, that is exactly what Laura Poitras seems to have done after she received those first encrypted emails. The film is made almost entirely of stitched-together footage from Laura’s time in Hong Kong. There is no traditional narrator, and the story is constructed through editing, but Edward Snowden’s storytelling combined with moments of real tension and clips of Glenn Greenwald’s reporting, spin a compelling narrative, made even more so by what we know the impact of that week in Hong Kong to be on both the subjects of the film and the whole world.