NEW YORK—“Citizenfour” documents Edward Snowden’s first encounters with director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald and their eight days together in a hotel room going over the NSA revelations that would lead to espionage charges against Snowden.
Poitras spoke the morning after “Citizenfour” premiered at the New York Film Festival.
AP: What was it like in that hotel room?
Laura Poitras: My experience was unlike any that I’ve ever filmed. I’ve worked in conflict zones and this felt more dangerous than any other place I’ve ever been. I felt the stakes were just incredibly high. I remember thinking very much that all my experiences as a filmmaker kind of went on autopilot.
Emotionally, it was really hard because I really felt this person was absolutely putting their life on the line, and there was a certain burden to participate in that and witness it and not know what the outcome would be. So it felt like a bit of a free fall.
AP: Was your role at all confusing, being that you were there as a journalist, a filmmaker, and an ally in a cause?
Ms. Poitras: When I was in Hong Kong, I was there as a documentary filmmaker, so I would call that visual journalism. I was there to record what I perceived to be a historic event. I wanted to be able to see somebody who’s risked everything. That doesn’t happen every day. I had different roles at different times. A lot of people could have written stories about these documents, but I felt like not a lot of people would have gotten into that hotel room.
AP: What really comes across is Snowden’s level-headed conviction and his understanding of the likely ramifications for himself?
Ms. Poitras: He was totally in a Zen state. He had arrived in a state where he was going to accept whatever consequences came, so he was very calm but very intentional, like: “There are things in my brain that I want to communicate to you. You’re not going to understand them all. But write them down because the world needs to know them and I might not ever see you again.”
AP: How was it editing the film in Berlin, where you worked to be outside of U.S. jurisdiction?
Ms. Poitras: We were working in lots of encryptions. Only my editor and I know certain things. There were real risks. When I came back from Hong Kong, I had to sit everyone down and say, “If this doesn’t feel comfortable, you need to let me know, because there is a chance we get a knock on the door.” These are real potential things, that the government might try to seize the footage.
AP: What did Snowden think of the film?
Ms. Poitras: He took a lot of notes and then a lot of them were like, “So on that shot, on the table behind there, you can see a thumb drive.” He was basically looking at it from an operational security perspective.
There’s a bit of an irony in it because he began our meeting by saying, “I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about the issues.” And yet I’ve made a film about him. I think he understands why I’ve done that and he’s consented to it. But I think there’s a part of him that would like to recede from the story.
From The Associated Press
