It's a masterful movie that should be on the short list for Oscar Documentary nominations. Besides the fact that it is a riveting story rivalling any spy movie, you should buy a ticket to see it to support more work of this kind. We need to show our visionary heros, and that's what Laura Poitras is, that they can make a good living doing the right stuff.
Bring someone with you. You never know. This movie will, hopefully, be great for inspiring whistleblowers. We need so many more with the courage of Snowden-- and journalists with the courage of Poitras, Greenwald and MacAskill.
I watched it and then, the next day, had a meeting with an FBI agent. The film definitely raised my paranoia-- a good thing, in these times.
I also saw Mockingjay, the third movie in the Hunger Games series.
It's about an uprising against a Capitol, where wealthy powerful people place demands tantamount to slavery upon the masses in "districts." Catniss Everdeen becomes the face and the voice of outrage and defiance. I watched it thinking of the responses to cops killing black victims-- Michael Brown and Eric Garner-- "Hands up," and "I can't breathe."
In the current episode of the Hunger Games series, the leadership, in the Capitol, allows zero tolerance, killing people who simply wear a symbol of resistance. Here in reality we have a police state where police have been shown again and again, by grand juries, that they can kill with impunity if they encounter any resistance, or even lack of what they consider adequate respect. Worse, the police have learned that they can become wealthy, as racists donate money to them. Let's face it, Darren Wilson retired from the police department a wealthy man.
Believe me, I don't want to see violent revolution. But we are already seeing a violent state where democracy and justice seem to be dying. Movies that show people standing up to the state, up to the system, up for justice and equality are valuable. This one tells a good story AND touches on many truths about our world, here, now, in reality.
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