Premiering Friday, June 26 at 8 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada, CITIZENFOUR chronicles one of the most fascinating, international headline-making events of 2013: the release of classified government documents by American whistleblower and former CIA advisor Edward Snowden. Unfolding by the minute, this real-life thriller gives audiences unprecedented access to filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’sencounters with Snowden as he hands over documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Watch a sneak peek of CITIZENFOUR below:
https://youtu.be/I5i0teF6j-A
Director Laura Poitras (The Oath, My Country, My Country) had already been working on a film about surveillance for two years, when Snowden contacted her in January 2013 using the name “Citizenfour”. When Snowden revealed he was a high-level analyst driven to expose the massive surveillance of Americans by the NSA, Poitras persuaded him to let her film.
CITIZENFOUR goes behind-the-scenes with Poitras, Greenwald, and Snowden as they attempt to manage the media storm raging outside their Hong Kong hotel room, forced to make quick decisions that will affect their lives and the lives of all around them. The documentary explores the dangers of governmental surveillance and attempts to get viewers to rethink their digital footprint.
The documentary is directed, filmed, and produced by Laura Poitras, edited and produced by Mathilde Bonnefoy, and produced by Dirk Wilutzky. Co-producers are Katy Scoggin and Kirsten Johnson. Executive producers are Steven Soderbergh, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, David Menschel, and Tom Quinn. For HBO Documentary Films, supervising producer is Sara Bernstein and executive producer is Sheila Nevins.
Subscribers wanting to see more of Snowden’s story can also watch his recent interview on HBO’s LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER (Season 2, Episode 8), available via on demand platforms like TMN GO and HBO Canada OnDemand.
In Eastern Canada, the film will be available on TMN GO and HBO Canada OnDemand. In Western Canada, it will be available on the go with Shaw Go Movie Central app, Bell TV app, Telus Optik on the go, and HBO Canada On Demand.
