You know about this whole Edward Snowden thing? Remember that stuff? When that NSA guy leaked all those NSA documents showing how the NSA spies on us all in every conceivable way? Here’s a Wikipedia page for you people not in the know, read it and then come back and join us informed people over here, okay great thanks. Everyone else who is (and who should be) interested in who this Snowden whistleblower fella really is and why he did what he did and even how he did it, boy do I got a movie for you.

“Citizenfour” is the kind of documentary that was filmed over a large period of time and shows events as they unfold, day by day, moment to moment, and rightly the people involved knew this was going to be a monumental moment in the history of the United States and dutifully recorded it as it happened, getting us as inside as possible, providing a perspective that could never be replicated in any other way because it is the one true perspective.

The first twenty minutes of the film unfold like a thriller, with filmmaker Laura Poitras, already on the government’s shit list, er, I mean watch list thanks to an Iraq war documentary she made, getting contacted by an anonymous source looking for a trustworthy person. Through the use of encrypted emails and spy-speak pass codes and double talk, they were eventually able to meet after an extended period of time, at which point the first day in a multi-day interview process begins between Snowden and a pair of journalists from The Guardian. They find out who he is and what information he has, and then they discuss the best way to proceed with disseminating the information.Continue Reading …