‘Citizenfour’ Team Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras Talk to the Late David Carr (Video)

Fri Feb 13 13:33:39 EST 2015

Oscar-nominated documentary "Citizenfour" follows Snowden as he takes a risk in exposing NSA spying to the U.S. public.

NYT David Carr at 'Citizenfour' TimesTalk

Just hours before his sudden death on Thursday, February 12, beloved New York Times media columnist David Carr moderated a TimesTalk interview at the New School with Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Edward Snowden, who appeared via satellite from Russia. The discussion centered around their Oscar nominated documentary "Citizenfour."

"There's something about the way you made that movie and what it reveals that makes it a little hard to sleep," Carr told Poitras at the beginning of the discussion. "Part of it is the realization that we live inside a turnkey security apparatus. It's also the technique of filmmaking."

Poitras was already several years deep into making a film about surveillance in a post-9/11 world when she began receiving mysterious emails from someone calling himself "citizen four." This man was Snowden, who had also reached out to The Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald, whose childhood hero was Daniel Ellsberg, had been naturally eager to break the story. Snowden was ready to blow the figurative whistle and reveal to the U.S. public the covert ways in which their government was spying on them. As a private security contractor for the National Security Agency, Snowden was in a position to leak highly classified information about the government's surveillance programs to the media.

Greenwald journeyed with Poitras to Hong Kong to meet with Snowden, and the result is a nail-biting thriller that takes place in Snowden's hotel room over a period of eight days. Poitras' camera captures Greenwald's careful unveiling of the NSA scandal and the backlash that followed. Both "Citizenfour" and Edward Snowden's revelations have shifted global consciousness. The underlying message seems to be the importance of awareness and action; if we value our rights, we can make an impact.

Here are some of the highlights from the discussion:

"It's not a film about me. It's a film about us," Snowden said. Appearing via satellite to participate in the TimesTalk, Snowden has a patient, boyish face. He was vehement about drawing attention away from himself, not wanting to "be" the story. Instead, Snowden made sure to mention an Ecuadorian government member who was punished for helping him. Greenwald described Snowden's only fear when they were on the verge of revealing the NSA dirt: that no one would care. Snowden worried more about the American public looking upon the story with apathy than he did about the unraveling of his own life. Greenwald clearly admires this selflessness, describing the whistleblower as "fearless." Snowden expressed humbly that he was incredibly satisfied to be a part of something larger than himself.

Carr asked Greenwald how he remained so calm throughout the film, in spite of the enormous risks they were taking. "I masked my anxiety well," Greenwald laughed. A clip from "Citizenfour" was projected over Snowden's satellite face, featuring one of the funniest and tensest moments in the film. A fire alarm goes off as Snowden and Greenwald sit talking in Snowden's hotel room; it stops; then goes off two more times. Suspicion and paranoia mount each time it rings. Snowden grows nervous, and although Glen coolly suggests it might just be a test of the alarm system, his face is increasingly somber. Snowden explained his response during the scene was plenty justified; if they were going to arrest him, they wouldn't barge into his hotel room. Instead, they'd find another excuse to draw him out.

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'Citizenfour' Team Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras Talk to the Late David Carr (Video)