CITIZENFOUR
Feature length film Completed 2014
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
Doc Society helped with
Production
Runtime: 114 minutes
Follow the film
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.
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In Theatres
Crew
Laura Poitras
Producer
Laura Poitras is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and artist. Her films have premiered at festivals worldwide and, along with her journalism, have received multiple honors including a Peabody Award, as well as Academy Award® and Emmy nominations. My Country, My Country (2006) focused on the Iraq War was nominated for an Academy Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and an Emmy Award. The Oath (2010), about Guantánamo, won the Sundance Cinematography Award, Edinburgh Film Festival Documentary Jury Award, and a Gotham Award for Best Documentary.
These two films comprise the first two parts of her post-9/11 America trilogy, of which CITIZENFOUR is the final part. Poitras has taught filmmaking at Duke and Yale Universities. Her work was selected for the 2012 Whitney Biennial and she will have her first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 2016. She is the recipient of a 2012 MacArthur Fellowship and was also a 2007 Guggenheim and a 2010 USA Rockefeller fellow. Poitras’ NSA reporting, based on documents from Edward Snowden, contributed to a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service awarded to The Guardian and Washington Post.
This reporting was also honored with a George Polk Award, the International Reporters & Editors (IRE) Medal, and the Ridenhour prize. In 2014, she also received the International Documentary Association Courage Under Fire award. Along with Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, she is co-founder of The Intercept news site. Poitras currently lives in Berlin.
This is a must see film absolutely worthy of your time and one which you will want to watch over and over again. Not even Le Carré or Ludlum can compare to this thrill ride!
Hollywood Reporter
Jan. 15, 2015
Its 114 minutes crackle with the nervous energy of revelation.
The Guardian
Oct. 11, 2014
Though superlatives can mischaracterize any movie’s qualities, it is not an overstatement, I think, to call “Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras’ film about Edward Snowden, the movie of the century (to date).
Roger Ebert
Oct. 24, 2014
Citizenfour is a fine documentary. Too bad the director glossed over some important details—and Edward Snowden didn’t gloss over more.
Fred Kaplan
Oct. 16, 2014
Citizenfour Is a Fascinating Look at the Edward Snowden Affair.
Vanity Fair
Oct. 23, 2014
The most frightening aspect of the documentary is a suggestion that this is only the dawn of what's to come.
The Film Stage
Oct. 21, 2014
A risky and revelatory documentary weakened only by its awesome source.
La Movie Boeuf
Dec. 17, 2015
Filmmaker Laura Poitras paints a frankly terrifying picture of the loss of liberty involved in the widespread government gathering of the communication done by ordinary Joes on a daily basis.
Toronto Sun
Nov. 6, 2014
