Former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden has reunited with Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.

Edward Snowden, Citizenfour director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald have had a kind of reunion, their first time together publicly since clandestinely meeting in a Hong Kong hotel in 2013.

Snowden appeared on video link from Russia on Thursday, joining Poitras and Greenwald for a talk conducted by David Carr, shortly before the New York Times media columnist collapsed and died.

They spoke about the Oscar-nominated documentary, which chronicles Snowden's leak of National Security Agency documents.

Snowden said he initially refused Poitras' wish to film their encounter but she eventually convinced him.

He called the documentary "incredible," but regretted his presence in the film, comparing his analytical instruction to Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.

Snowden figures to be a conspicuous absence from the Academy Awards on February 22, at which Citizenfour is the favourite to win the documentary Oscar.

He said living in Moscow he's busier than he ever was as a National Security Agency employee, but life is more rewarding as he continues to speak out about governmental surveillance.

Snowden said he remains confused why the US revoked his passport midway in his initial flight from Hong Kong. He said his destination was Latin America, and claimed it would have been easier for the US to extradite him from there than from Russia, which has granted him asylum.

He said he has no regrets, even if some label him a traitor.

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Snowden reunites with doco maker

New York Times columnist David Carr, in his final public appearance, hosted a reunion of sorts with Snowden, protagonist of the film "Citizenfour," as well as director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

From left: Poitras, Snowden and Greenwald. The three talked Thursday about the state of surveillance and about "Citizenfour," Poitras' Oscar-nominated film chronicling their storied secret discussions in a Hong Kong hideout.The New York Times

It was just like old times, sort of.

On Thursday, NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden got together again with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras to talk surveillance, reliving in a sense their now historic secret meeting two summers ago in a Hong Kong hotel room.

That first time around, Snowden handed the two a huge cache of top secret National Security Agency documents and asked them to let the public know about the NSA's gigantic and constitutionally questionable appetite for people's data. The meeting set off a chain of events that led to, among other things, consternation in Silicon Valley about the privacy of customer data; international outrage over tapped phones; high-profile reassurances from the president about agency reform; the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize (shared by Greenwald, Poitras and others); and, more recently, a nomination for an Academy Award.

The last item was in part the reason for the reunion, where, this time around, Snowden couldn't be present in the flesh but instead beamed in on a live feed from Russia, where he's been holed up since the document handoff. Poitras famously filmed the initial encounter, with the UK's Guardian news site publishing a short video interview with Snowden when he revealed himself as the source of the leaks. In the film "Citizenfour" -- named for an alias used by Snowden -- Poitras taps previously unseen footage to chronicle the exchange and the surveillance-related circumstances surrounding it. Some have pegged the film as a shoo-in for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars on February 22.

In anticipation of that event, The New York Times' TimesTalks series played host to the three on Thursday, for a discussion of the film and the present state of "the surveillance state." (The roundtable marked, sadly, a final public appearance by moderator and Times media columnist David Carr, who died of a heart attack later in the evening.)

One thing the discussion brought home is how remarkable the film is, simply from a historical standpoint. After all, regardless of how one views the leaking of government secrets, we don't have film of Deep Throat giving Woodward and Bernstein the scoop about Watergate; we don't have footage of Daniel Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon Papers. But in "Citizenfour," we see Snowden in the act of handing over the classified material and explaining various aspects of it. The Hong Kong footage is a fascinating look, in more or less real time, of the events and people behind the countless brief news stories we might have read on the leak, the many sound bites we might have heard.

"I don't think there's any film like it," Snowden said. "It's very rare to get some kind of record like this."

One reason is perhaps obvious. In a remark that got a laugh from the crowd, Snowden said that when Poitras initially asked if she could film the goings-on, he said no "for a number of reasons, not the least of which is when you're involved in an action which is very likely to get you indicted, you typically don't have a camera rolling in the room." But, he said, Poitras was "good about not taking no as an answer."

Continued here:
Edward Snowden talks 'Citizenfour' with Poitras, Greenwald

JUDY WOODRUFF: President Obama went to Silicon Valley today to call for more cooperation between private companies and the government when it comes to defending against cyber-attacks.

In the wake of major hacks against health insurer Anthem and Sony Pictures, the president told executives they need to share more information.

But todays summit also comes amid growing tensions between tech companies and the administration over privacy and civil liberties, a point the president acknowledged.

BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States: In all our work, we have to make sure we are protecting the privacy and civil liberty of the American people. Now, we grapple with these issues in government.

We have pursued important reforms to make sure we are respecting peoples privacy, as well as ensuring our national security. And the private sector wrestles with this as well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Several CEOs of top tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, didnt attend, reportedly over anger and disappointment about a lack of reform in the governments broad surveillance programs.

The revelations about the governments reach are the subject of a documentary nominated for an Academy Award.

Jeffrey Brown picks it up from there, part of our series the NewsHour Goes to the Movies.

EDWARD SNOWDEN, Leaked Details of U.S. Surveillance: My name is Edward Snowden. I go by Ed. Edward Joseph Snowden is the full name.

JEFFREY BROWN: The documentary Citizenfour brings us into a Hong Kong hotel room as former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveals secrets that would make for blockbuster headlines beginning in June 2013: the large-scale collection of phone and Internet data by the U.S. government.

Original post:
Watching Snowden’s pivotal moments in ‘Citizenfour’

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)