16 Oct 2014

Exclusive: Laura Poitras on Snowden – the movie

It was not until four years after the Watergate scandal, which brought down President Nixon, that we got to see how two journalists managed the scoop of the 20th century.

The movie All The President’s Men told the story of how Washington Post reporters blew the lid off political corruption in the White House.

Laura Poitras’ movie CITZENFOUR is like watching All The President’s Men but shot for real, on a camera made shaky by the reporter’s fear and exhilaration.

Poitras and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald meet Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel, switch the cameras on , and what we get is a compelling story of how a whistleblowing spy spilled the beans on the global abolition of privacy by the US government.

Poitras will not come to Britain for Friday’s premiere – she says her lawyers have advised her that the UK legal system will not protect her. So I travelled to Berlin to record this exclusive interview.

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