“Schools should screen Citizen4"

The documentary about the courageous NSA system administrator Edward Snowden, directed by Laura Poitras, had premiere in Berlin November 7.

The film tells the story of the whistleblower who made ​​the world ask itself to what purpose we have freedom of speech if the power already knows what we think and how we act, when we are critical and organise ourselves. What happens to our views and behaviours when these are recorded and can be used against us? Anxiety, shadyness, fear, self-censorship, passivity? A disempowered and quelled human being?

Seeing the past year’s, and one of history’s, greatest journalistic scoop rolled up again — in concentrated form — from where the story begins to where it stands today, was a strange experience. The shock effect that the revelations had when they first appeared had a different impact today. On a distance they spurred a more condensed and profound kind of reflection, as this issue concerned me personally and wasn’t only a scandalous and somewhat abstract breach of human rights. And those in power — from POTUS to other functionaries of the state — who wriggled when they first were confronted with the revelations resembled today a bunch of rather ridiculous characters in a historical drama from anno dazumal. Edward Snowden, the hero himself, became more and more human the farther into the movie we could follow him.

The director Laura Poitras was present and took questions from the audience. Germans celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall and take the threats of a surveillance society seriously: Members of the Bundestag were in the audience and the hashtag #Citizenfour was trending on Twitter. This is all good. But how far will the film travel? Will it get to Sweden for instance, one of the countries that contributed to the surveillance programs? As I asked the distributor of the film about the plans for the Stockholm premiere, the answer was: Keine Ahnung. This is worrying as this probably goes for many other countries as well.

One person in the audience spoke up and asked the director: As many people now already are familiar with the Edward Snowden revelations and the incredible reach of the surveillance apparatus, what can the film do more? Laura Poitras didn’t give a very clear answer when she was referring to the film as an art work, lacking any scripted end-game. The music artist M.I.A, that went to the premiere in London a couple of weeks ago, had a more constructive reply to that question when she tweeted: