PORTLAND, Maine — Edward Snowden. Patriot or turncoat?
“ Citizenfour,” the documentary that traces the former National Security Agency systems administrator as he leaks classified information to the American public in 2013, will help you to a greater understanding of the events that fractured the country’s sense of privacy.
Screening Monday at Space Gallery, the intense film takes viewers inside hotel rooms with Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story for the British newspaper The Guardian.
The real life thriller by filmmaker Laura Poitras spotlights her and Greenwald’s encounters with Snowden in Hong Kong as he unveils classified documents providing evidence of illegal invasions of privacy by the NSA. All the while the U.S. government is breathing down their necks in real time.
“Citizenfour” is the code name Snowden used to conceal his identity when he contacted Poitras, who was working on a film about surveillance at the time. “Citizenfour” premiered at the New York Film Festival in October and is nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature this year.
Digital messages between Poitras and Snowden and music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who scored “ The Social Network”) turns this into a jarring real life “Mission Impossible,” or “Bourne Identity.”
But pulp fiction it is not.
“‘Citizenfour’ documents both government policy and human courage,” said Zachary Heiden, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, who will lead a discussion after the screening. “The film reveals secret mass surveillance programs that the U.S. government has been using against its citizens.”
More pointedly, it’s a story about Snowden, a computer programmer from North Carolina who put his life on the line to inform the public that their day to day activities are being watched and recorded.
“The film is a portrait of a man who could have easily kept his mouth shut and lived a life of ease and comfort,” Heiden said by email. He hopes to bring the story into context by discussing what has happened pre- and post-Snowden. “Edward Snowden felt an obligation to risk his own comfort and safety in order to share important knowledge with the public.”
After seeing the film, “you will never think the same way about your phone, email, credit card, web browser, or profile, ever again,” according to movie press material.
In an over-sharing digital world rife with location data and security risks, is there such a thing as private communication anymore?
Put your phones on silence and see this flick.
Space Gallery, 538 Congress St., 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2. Admission is $8.