Citizenfour, a film documenting interviews director Laura Poitras conducted with whistle-blower Edward Snowden, won the Oscar for best documentary Sunday. The talks took place as Snowden blew the lid off the United States National Security Agency's surveillance activities.

The award highlights the divisions in the U.S. over Snowden's actions and the question of national security.

"The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don't only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself," Poitras said in her acceptance speech.

"When the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage, and for the many other whistle-blowers. And I share this with Glenn Greenwald and other journalists who are exposing truth," she added.

In the aftermath of the audience's applause, Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris quipped that Snowden "couldn't be here for some treason."

Glen Greenwald, the journalist whose role in publicizing Snowden's revelations also was documented in Citizenfour, later commented that Harris' remark was "stupid and irresponsible."

Greenwald said he would treat it as a pitiful joke, while noting the irony of "Hollywood's fondness for congratulating itself for doing things like standing up for McCarthyism and blacklists."

However, intelligence figures such as former CIA director General David Petraeus and U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have blasted Snowden as a traitor -- even though, as Greenwald pointed out, he has neither been charged nor convicted of that crime.

At the same time, a movement to pressure President Obama for his pardon has gained strength. Snowden also has gained considerable media support for his actions.

So far, the administration has ignored a petition that garnered nearly 165,000 signatures by June 2013. The grassroots organization We the People organized that petition, which is posted on the Whitehouse.gov website.

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Citizenfour's Oscar Highlights National Divide Over Snowden

TIME Entertainment celebrities Edward Snowden Laughed Off Neil Patrick Harris Treason Joke He didn't mind the host's jab

Citizenfour, the documentary about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards on Sunday night. But the films win has been somewhat eclipsed by one of host Neil Patrick Harris jokes about the movies controversial subject.

After Citizenfour director Laura Poitras accepted the award on stage (along with journalist and lawyer Glenn Greenwald, the films editor and one of its producers), Harris remarked, The subject of Citizenfour, Edward Snowden, could not be here tonight for some treason. Plenty of supporters of Snowden, whose charges dont actually include treason, werent impressed by the pun and voiced their disappointment on Twitter.

Snowden himself, however, appears to have taken it in stride. To be honest, I laughed at NPH, Snowden wrote in a question-and-answer session on reddit following the movies win. I dont think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, thats not so bad. My perspective is if youre not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you dont care enough.

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Edward Snowden Laughed Off Neil Patrick Harris’ ‘Treason’ Joke

February 23, 2015

Brian Galloway for redOrbit.com @brigallo17

Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras, and Glenn Greenwald, the creators of CITIZENFOUR, participated in a Reddit AMA concerning the documentary and the state of data collection and security throughout the world.

If you enjoyed CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras announced that she plans to release more footage from the Hong Kong Shoot. On the first day [she] met Ed, Glenn conducted a long interview (4-5 hours) that is extraordinary.

Check out the AMA in its entirety here. Snowden and the filmmakers go into great depth with their questions, so read through if youre interested and have the time. If not, here are some highlights:

On Snowden being a Russian spy:

The answer is of course not. Youll notice in all of these articles, the assertions ultimately come down to speculation and suspicion. None of them claim to have any actual proof, theyre just so damned sure Im a russian spy that it must be true.

On theworlds reaction to his leaks:

The biggest change has been in awareness. Before 2013, if you said the NSA was making records of everybodys phone calls and the GCHQ was monitoring lawyers and journalists, people raised eyebrows and called you a conspiracy theorist.

Snowden is asked if he thinks people still dont care about their privacy:

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Citizenfour AMA details Snowden's life and additional footage release

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Update (2/22/2015): Citizenfour won the Oscar for best documentary at the 2015 Academy Awards. After the announcement, the ACLU published a statement from Edward Snowden himself on the accomplishment.

When Laura Poitras asked me if she could film our encounters, I was extremely reluctant. Im grateful that I allowed her to persuade me," Snowden wrote in a statement. "The result is a brave and brilliant film that deserves the honor and recognition it has received. My hope is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world."

Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald were on hand at the event to accept the honor. "The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don'tonly expose a threat to our privacy, but to our democracy itself," Poitras said. "When the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage."

And after Poitras, Greenwald, and crew left the stage, host Neil Patrick Harris reminded everyone about Snowden's current reality. "The subject of the film, Edward Snowden, could not be here tonight for some treason."

In light of the prize, we've resurfaced our take on the film from last fall. The original review is below in full.

Citizenfour is filmmaker Laura Poitras' account of the first meetingsbetween herself, Glenn Greenwald, and Edward Snowden. It was first shown publiclylast Friday, and it will open intheaters in New York,Los Angeles, and San Francisco on October 24.

For those who have followed the news around the Snowden documents,even in small doses, Citizenfourisn't full of revelations (though there are a few surprises). But for viewersinterested in surveillance, or the future of the Internet, or journalismit won't matter. The film is riveting, and its power is in its source material.

Poitras filmed Snowden for 20 hours over eight days in his Hong Kong hotel, and her film has now given the world an unfiltered portrait of the man who, in the course of the year, became the Wests most wanted dissident.

The movie follows Snowden in Hong Kong up until his decision to leave the hotel and flee for Russia, where he remains today. The hotel scenes are sometimes tense and at times surprisingly funny. Snowden and the reporters get granular, talking about how theyll break the story and what might happen afterward.For a journalism junkie, Poitras fly-on-the-wall picture of a meeting with thesource of the century is practically pornographic (in the best possible way).

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Secrets become history: Edward Snowden in the Oscar-winning Citizenfour [Updated]

Edward Snowden shook up the US security establishment with revelations of NSA surveillance

A documentary on whistleblower Edward Snowden won the Oscar for the best documentary feature, in a shot in the arm for people worldwide protesting against alleged U.S. intrusions into the privacy of people in the country and abroad.

The 87th Academy Awards were held Sunday in Los Angeles and presents film awards in 24 categories.

Snowden, a former contractor of the U.S. National Security Agency, shook up the security establishment starting in June 2013, when he disclosed through newspapers that the agency was collecting in bulk phone data of Verizon's U.S. customers, the first of many revelations by him.

Subsequent disclosures also alleged that the U.S. had real-time access to content on the servers of Internet companies, which the tech firms denied, and also spied on top world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Last week, the Intercept cited documents from Snowden to allege that U.S. and British spies had hacked into the network of SIM cards maker Gemalto to steal encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications.

Snowden went into hiding to avoid extradition and arrest, and is currently in Russia where he has obtained asylum. The documentary Citizenfour, named after the pseudonym used by Snowden in January 2013 to contact Laura Poitras, the activist director of the documentary, is the story of Snowden's disclosures from her eyes and that of journalist Glenn Greenwald, who received the classified documents in Hong Kong.

In the wake of the outcry following Snowden's revelations, U.S. President Barack Obama called for changes to NSA surveillance in January last year, with new privacy advocates assigned to a surveillance court and a move away from the bulk collection of telephone records.

But the changes have been slow, including because of delays by Congress to pass the necessary legislation. The USA Freedom Act, which would leave the data with telecommunications companies and restrict the search terms used by the NSA, was stalled last year in the Senate, despite White House backing for the legislation.

In a message released through the American Civil Liberties Union, Snowden said his hope "is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world."

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Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins Oscar

Los Angeles, Feb 23: Laura Poitras' "Citizenfour", which captures whistleblower Edward Snowden's NSA surveillance leak unfolding in real time, won the best documentary feature Oscar at the 87th Academy awards.

"Citizenfour" was the code name that Snowden used to contact Poitras through an encrypted e-mail before going public with his revelations. Jennifer Aniston and David Oyelowo presented Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky. Poitras thanked the Academy and the documentary community while accepting the award.

"The disclosures that Edward Snowden revealed don't only expose a threat to our privacy but to also our democracy. When the most important decisions affecting all of us are being made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden, to his courage and many other whistleblowers," Poitras said in her speech.

Snowden's revelations about the massive wiretapping practices by NSA and other US agencies shook the world and he eventually had to flee his birth country and is currently in Russia on asylum. The director spent eight days with Snowden and two others -- investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian intelligence reporter Ewen MacAskill -- in a Hong Kong hotel as they documented the leaks.

Other nominees in this category included John Maloof and Charlie Siskel's "Finding Vivian Maier", Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester's "Last Days in Vietnam", Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier's "The Salt of the Earth" and "Virunga" by Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara. The film was a frontrunner in the category.

Poitras had earned an Oscar nomination for her 2006 documentary "My Country, My Country" that dealt with the US occupation of Iraq. It was her first film in a trilogy on the post 9/11 America. Her second documentary "My Oath" revolved around Abu Jandal, a taxi driver in San'a, Yemen who had worked as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden for four years, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who worked for bin Laden as his driver in Afghanistan.

The two were captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Before being contacted by Snowden, Poitras was already working on a documentary about domestic monitoring being done in the US following the 9/11 terror attacks. PTI BK PSH BK

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Edward Snowden documentary "Citizenfour" wins at Oscars

WASHINGTON - The best documentary Oscar awarded to "Citizenfour" is the latest in a string of accolades for the journalists who brought to light the trove of classified documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The film directed and produced by Laura Poitras reveals how she worked with other reporters to lift the lid on the sweeping surveillance programs of the US National Security Agency and other intelligence services -- revelations which shocked many in America and around the world.

"The most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret. We lose our ability to check the powers that control," Poitras said Sunday as she accepted the award at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with journalist Glenn Greenwald at her side.

"Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage and for the many other whistleblowers, and I share this with other journalists who are exposing truth."

Photo Gallery:

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Snowden said in a statement released to the American Civil Liberties Union that he hoped people seeing the film would "be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world."

"Citizenfour" revolves around a series of conversations with Snowden filmed in Hong Kong, where the onetime NSA contractor explains the powerful intelligence apparatus of the US government and its allies.

It notably shows Snowden -- who used the pseudonym "Citizenfour" when he first contacted Poitras -- explaining these programs to her, Greenwald and Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill.

Poitras told a recent New York Times forum that the film "has something hopeful in it... because it's people basically being willing to be courageous and say something about what they see as wrong in the world."

Originally posted here:
'Citizenfour' Oscar is latest honour for Snowden journalists

Oliver Stones Snowden, which tells the story of NSA whistelblower Edward Snowden, will get a Christmas release in the U.S.

Variety broke the news of the biopics release. Open Road is handling U.S. sales, while Wild Bunch will manage sales internationally.

Snowden will follow the titular whistleblower in his endeavor to leak secrets about the National Security Agency. Snowden was charged with violating the Espionage Act in 2013 and had his passport revoked. Last year, he gained temporary asylum status in Russia.

Stone co-wrote the film with Kieran Fitzgerald. The script is largely based off of Time of the Octopus by Snowdens Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena and The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the Worlds Most Wanted Man by journalist Luke Harding.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads the cast as Snowden. The rest of the cast is filled out by Shailene Woodley, Tom Wilkinson, Melissa Leo and Zachary Quinto. Joely Richardson, Timothy Olyphant and Rhys Ifans have also come aboard during the past week.

The film recently began shooting in Munich and will continue until the middle of May.

image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com

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Oliver Stone's 'Snowden' with Joseph Gordon-Levitt will hit U.S. theaters on Christmas

By Joanne Ostrow

Denver Post Television Critic

Whether you regard Edward Snowden as a patriot or a traitor, a whistleblower or leaker, you may be unhinged by the revelations of "Citizenfour," the film by Laura Poitras about massive surveillance operations of the U.S. government and one geek's attempts to bring the trend to light.

After seeing this suspenseful real-life thriller, you will be forgiven for looking over your shoulder or feeling a tinge of paranoia the next time you use your phone, credit card or email.

"Citizenfour," nominated for a documentary feature Academy Award, gets its small-screen premiere on Monday, Feb. 23, 9-11 p.m. on HBO.

Poitras shares the tension of her first communication from former National Security Administration systems analyst Snowden from the opening shots. The camera documents her secretive meeting with him in Hong Kong, the participation of journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian, and the incredibly tense hours in a hotel room, as Snowden gave his first interviews before his face appeared on building-high video screens, beaming to the world.

It's as frightening as any scripted drama, and it really happened.

Poitras considers the film to be the third part of a trilogy she's directed about U.S. foreign policy (starting with "My Country, My Country" and "The Oath") over the last decade, assessing what she has called the country's "moral drift" post-9/11.

Snowden contacted Poitras because he knew she was a longtime target of government surveillance who has been stopped at borders and followed as a result of her documentary research. The email trail reveals how he contacted her, using the name "Citizenfour," in January 2013.

The result is a minute-by-minute spy story, complete with discussions of how to play the media, how to escape notice when the whole world is looking for the whistleblower, and meetings with human-rights lawyers en route to obtaining political asylum.

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Oscar-nominated film 'Citizenfour' premieres on HBO

Laura Poitras on being Edward Snowden #39;s first contact over leaked NSA documents
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras talks about what it was like to be Edward Snowden #39;s first contact over leaked NSA documents. Subscribe to The National to watch more videos here:...

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