Edward Snowden revelations continue to resonate in scarily fascinating documentary Citizenfour

BIG Brother is one step ahead in the groundbreaking documentary Citizenfour, which digs deep into serious surveillance questions that are still to be answered.

Citizenfour (M)

Director: Laura Poitras (The Oath)

Starring: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney.

Rating: ***1/2

To stay offline, or stay on notice?

First, the good news from Citizenfour: Big Brother is no longer following you.

Are you ready for the bad news? He is now one step ahead of you.

This unnerving Oscar-nominated doco is groundbreaking on a number of fronts, not the least of which is how it puts the viewer on the spot as history is being made.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras was present in mid-2013 as Edward Snowden became the most worrying whistleblower of all-time.

From a poky hotel room in Hong Kong, Snowden — a highly credentialed contractor for America’s National Security Agency (NSA) — unleashed a tsunami of shock revelations that are still altering the global political landscape today.

Controversial figure ... Edward Snowden in a scene from documentary, Citizenfour Picture: Madman Films

The crux of the many thousands of classified documents Snowden released to crusading journalist Glenn Greenwald centred on how the US government is relentlessly harvesting the online lives of its citizens.

The Obama administration have spun the issue to say the NSA has been only collecting ‘metadata’ — digital tags and labels — in the interests of national security.

However, a deeper dip into the Snowden files suggests that the NSA is reeling in complete recordings of phone calls, full transcripts of text messages and emails, and even daily GPS movements of digital devices.

More than just national security ... a scene from the documentary, Citizenfour. Picture: Madman Films

Snowden’s chief accusation — which is yet to be adequately answered — is that the US government is spying on its own people without any statutory oversight whatsoever.

Though the doco doesn’t fully explore the patriot-traitor conundrum of Snowden’s unprecedented actions, its outline of the implications that mass authoritarian surveillance holds for us all is as chilling as it is compelling.

Originally published as Edward Snowden revelations continue to resonate in scarily fascinating documentary Citizenfour