Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival

DIRECTOR: Laura Poitras | USA | 2014 | 110min

History waits for no one, certainly not for cameras. But Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker Poitras beat it at its own game with CITIZENFOUR – winner of 2015’s Documentary Oscar. Poitras and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald were the first to be contacted by Edward Snowden (aka Citizenfour) in blowing the whistle on the shocking extent of the NSA’s surveillance of American and global citizenry. After months of covert communications and Deep-Throat-style mystery, Poitras and Greenwald finally met Snowden in Hong Kong. There, holed up in an hotel room for a week, they unwind and re-build the story that was to become one of the greatest dramas of our generation, played out here in real time and space, turning history into something we can all be part of.

Screenings at Encounters 2015

CT: Thu 4 7.30pm CN V&A ON invite only | Sun 7 5pm CN V&A + PD | Tue 9 6.30pm Labia | Fri 12 8.15pm Labia
Jozi: Fri 6 8.45pm CN Rosebank | Thu 11 8.30pm CN Rosebank

Panel Discussions

Sun 7, after the 5pm screening at Cinema Nouveau V&A

Panellists:

• Murray Hunter, of the Right2Know (R2K) Campaign, Organiser of Secrecy and Securitisation.
• Prof June Duncan from the University of Johannesburg, and author of Rise of the Securocrats: the case of South Africa
• Judith February, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Security Studies

After the screening of CITIZENFOUR, join our panellists in an urgent discussion focusing on National Security, Surveillance, privacy and freedom of speech in both today and tomorrow’s South Africa.