Watched: Citizenfour (2014).
This film is by turns infuriating and thrilling to watch; thrilling, because it provides an intimate look at last year’s NSA leaks and the man who leaked the information, but infuriating because very little has been done in the US since the film came out, save for a condemnation of Edward Snowden by the president.
Focusing on the film itself, then: this is a masterful documentary that knows when to pull back and tell the story through chatlogs, and still shots of server farms, and is content to let the people in charge dig their own graves by showing their outright lies in a number of hearings. Snowden himself is a curious documentary subject; he’s powerfully self-aware, and demonstrates that he’s more media-savvy than he lets on in the way that he crafts his own image, or lack thereof. This isn’t sensational filmmaking; halfway through, Snowden largely exits the picture as he disappears underground, and the film instead focuses on the story of the leaks as it develops. All that said, it’s instantly gripping, and a hugely important film.