Producer
Laura Poitras
supervising producer: HBO
Sara Bernstein
commissioning editor: NDR
Barbara Biemann
producer
Mathilde Bonnefoy
production executive: NDR
Daniel Buresch
distribution producer
Brenda Coughlin
co-producer
Kirsten Johnson
field producer
Marcelo Lessa
executive producer
David Menschel
executive producer
Sheila Nevins
executive producer
Tom Quinn
commissioning editor: BR
Sonja Scheider
co-producer
Katy Scoggin
executive producer
Jeff Skoll
executive producer
Steven Soderbergh
executive producer
Diane Weyermann
producer
Dirk Wilutzky
Cinematography
Kirsten Johnson
Cinematography
Trevor Paglen
Cinematography
Katy Scoggin
Editor
Mathilde Bonnefoy
Production support
In January 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras was several years into the making of a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11 America when she started receiving encrypted emails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies.
In June 2013, she and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely unique in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.
