"... if you think no one knows whom you’re calling, what you’re texting, or what websites you’re patronizing, you should think again." -- Ty Burr, Boston Globe, Oct. 30, 2014
If you already feel
strongly that government surveillance, or spying into all you phone calls
and Internet communications and credit card transactions violates your Constitutional
rights; and outraged that a systematic government intrusion into the personal
lives of Americans has been planned and pursued in total secrecy without any
public scrutiny... then you probably don't need to see the new film "CitizenFour."
The film
documents the act of going public with the revelation of a massive government surveillance system by a civilian "senior
advisor" to the NSA (National Security Administration) named Edward
Snowden.
And if you believe this spying into everybody's personal business in the name of national security is an abuse of power, you probably don't need to be confronted with the
realization that while the government's systematic storing of your complete
digital footprint began during the Bush administration, it received approval and
came to full fruition under Barack Obama, who warned during his 2008 campaign
about the risk of infringment on First Amendment freedoms posed in the
name keeping us safe. Or to watch the film of his reaction to
the exposure of a secret surveillance system far more extensive than anybody outside the government surveillance apparatus guessed, as he says he welcomes a
national discussion of issues raised by the need to protect freedom of speech while keeping us safe -- but that he didn't want it to
happen "this way."... When, in fact, he had already approved a massive
government spying operation in complete secrecy without any public discussion
of "the issues" whatsoever... And when he and everybody else in his administration kept their mouths shut as a top security bosses blatantly lied to the
American public, denying the systematic surveillance of American citizens' private communications in response to direct questions
raised on the floor of Congress.
Because you
will likely find this hypocrisy galling. You may feel (as I did) when watching this
part of the film that Obama's reputation will never escape this self-inflicted
wound.
If on the
other hand, you don't see what all the fuss has been about, then you
probably should see "CitizenFour.'
The
film-maker, Elizabeth Poitras, who was contacted by Snowden when he decided to make
the public aware of the existence of the government's secret surveillance system because she had
made films about related subjects in the post-911 era, simply filmed Snowden's
encounters with the journalists who broke his story. It's a reporter's
procedural. The film has also been termed a "political thriller" or
even "spy thriller" because the parties' interactions are conducted in
pre-emptive 'hiding,' because they are plainly worried
about government security police breaking in on them at any moment to find out what they
are talking about and shutting them up when they do. The tension is gripping. Snowden plainly expects
to end up in jail.
But the
film is also a documentary. Though conducted in hiding -- an anonymous hotel
room in Hong Kong -- the film preserves a record of what Snowden says about his
intentions, his concerns, his fears, the price he might pay, his desire to
shield others from undeserved consequences. The two reporters' own thoughts
of what they are doing and why -- Glenn Greenwald in particularly is
remarkably articulate and effective in explaining the significance of complex technical issues -- are
also on record. A record debunks slander. What we see is whistle blowing, not conspiracy. Poitras is not "a provocateur,"
Snowden is not attention-seeker, Greenwald is not a camera-hound with a scoop.
As
nonfiction cinema it breaks down the story and gives us information: pressured
by the government Verizon agree to give up everything: all the calls that
everybody makes. Google and Facebook and all the other Internet servers agree to give
the government everything everybody does online; where you 'go' online, all
your transactions. Your banks, your credit card company, your subway pass --
the same deal.
What the
NSA -- and the FBI -- do, will do, or might consider doing with all this information it has intercepted and continues to intercept is something we don't know. Hopefully very little.
But is that a decision we feel secure about leaving up to appointed officials who will make it,
and do what they decide to do, in the way they're most comfortable doing everything -- completely in the
dark, with nobody watching?
The bigger point has to be that this
staggering level of a state's surveillance of so many of the routine, daily actions
of all its citizens is a recipe for 1984.
"CitizenFour"
is filled with talk, short on action, often slow-moving. But it's also
chilling.
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