Citizenfour

In January 2013 an encrypted email reaches Laura Poitras from someone calling himself citizenfour. At the end of May she sits down opposite Edward Snowden in a room at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong and films for eight days. The documentary records the moment the NSA's mass surveillance programmes come to light as it happens, rather than reconstructing it afterwards. Poitras was working at the time on a trilogy about surveillance after 11 September. After the shoot she moved to Berlin and protected the material with encrypted drives, air-gapped computers and closed channels of communication. Its tensest passage is 9 June, when Snowden's identity becomes public and the press locates the hotel. To avoid being seen he moves into Poitras's room for a while, then leaves for Moscow. HBO Documentary Films, Participant Media and Praxis Films produced it on a one million dollar budget; it took 3 million. It won Best Documentary Feature at the 87th Academy Awards in February 2015, along with BAFTA, Golden Globe and Directors Guild awards. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 96 percent. Who it is for: viewers who want the surveillance argument and the breaking of the story seen from inside the room. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a critical account of Snowden. The film stands on his side and does not hide it.