Have you heard Edward Snowden before this class? How much do you know about him?

 

Citizenfour

Synopsis: This Academy Award winning documentary features the story behind Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. The film documents and unfolds the whole process, which is now an important part of the history.

Instruction: Watch the documentary Citizenfour. Write down your response to the following questions:

1. Have you heard Edward Snowden before this class? How much do you know about him?
2. Do you think we should be concerned about the government’s massive surveillance on its people? Is it problematic? Why?
3. Do you think Snowden had more of a moral responsibility to uphold the oath he’d taken when accepting his role at the NSA, or to the American people in revealing what he perceives as wrongdoings against them? Would you label him a traitor or patriot?
4. Read other classmates’ posts and leave a thoughtful comment (under other students' posts, not in your own response) that exchanges one question you have either on the movie or this classmate’s post. Please be respectful when you ask your questions.

Citizenfour (2014 Documentary) is available at:

• YouTube, free:Citizenfour (Links to an external site.)
• Vudu, free for watching but requiring a log in account: https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Citizenfour/650667 (Links to an external site.)
• Amazon, from $3.99: https://watch.amazon.com/detail?asin=B018GVHNE0 (Links to an external site.)
• Google Play, from $3.99: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details?id=oKkF-X4QLB4 (Links to an external site.)