Laura Poitras

Watch the New Trailer for WikiLeaks Documentary ‘Risk’
Watch the New Trailer for WikiLeaks Documentary ‘Risk’
Watch the New Trailer for WikiLeaks Documentary ‘Risk’
In appearances at film festivals or the occasional blockbuster exhibit at the Whitney Museum, documentarian Laura Poitras gives the impression of a pretty collected, cool-headed woman. Which comes as a surprise, seeing as few people on Earth would have more justification for turning into a raving paranoid lunatic. Poitras wowed the world in 2014 with her Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, wherein she risked life and limb to gain access to the classified intelligence whistleblower and ran afoul of the United States’ far-reaching surveillance programs in the process. A few years later, and she’s prepared to unveil her latest stunning exposé on the shady business of federal watching, the lightning rod Risk. If you weren‘t feeling uneasy about the virtual eyeballs monitoring your every move, now would be a fine time to get started.
'Citizenfour': The Edward Snowden Doc is a Must-Watch
'Citizenfour': The Edward Snowden Doc is a Must-Watch
'Citizenfour': The Edward Snowden Doc is a Must-Watch
At times, while watching Laura Poitras’ ‘Citizenfour’ (which premiered Friday night at the New York Film Festival) it feels like fiction. It feels like an almost lazy spy movie that uses clichéd tropes to present a world in which everyone and everything is being watched. But, this isn’t fiction. This is the story of Edward Snowden and it is terrifying in its paranoia.