Ed Snowden at Cuba Lighthouse

'Citizenfour', aka Edward Snowden, or Ed as he preferred to be called, certainly did not live up to its hype...'the must-see documentary of the year'. I think not, and so it appears, did two of the visitors who walked out half way through last night, and they were Gen Y! 

The film, the third in a trilogy about mass surveillance and US interference, is directed by Laura Poitras who is the daughter of millionnaire Boston philanthropists. Laura originally wanted to be a French Chef but becoming politically engaged later in NYC, she opted for filming docos.

However this doco I must say was slack, and had at the most thirty minutes of interesting footage and that was hardly new. They even used a few seconds of Julian Assange holed up in London, or was it Reykjavik. I forget now, it is so yesterday's news. The all-improtant critique of mass surveillance somehow gets lost in translation.

 One can have only so much of a pristine white-walled and white-sheeted Hong Kong five star hotel room, where most of the film was shot, with one scene of Snowden langorously putting gel into his hair! It was relieved only momentarily by a few minutes from Rio De Janeiro where the other whistle-blower Glenn Greenwald was living with his many lovely curled up pooches. Later in the film we see that he (Greenwald) has a handsome male Brazilian partner who suffered some collateral damage in the eventual 'outing' of Snowden and his 'shattering news'. This was the only tiny relief in a very boring film.

I agree it is important stuff, personal privacy, as as such, should be fought for. And nations like the US should be brought to account for lying, but all nations are spying it is common knowledge, so it's a bit rich to be calling oneself 'holier than thou' when the same things are being done by everyone, all in the name of national security. Oh, except for the Germans of course!

As for me, I probably would have walked out with the young couple but I was hemmed in and to be truthful, I was hoping something new might be revealed, but no, not a skerrick. I really don't know how it scooped a BAFTA award, something funny somewhere. I suppose it was for the serious weight of the subject matter.

And now for a cinematic rest until the FFF comes on in March. Allez les Bleus!

View of Waitangi Park from bus.. 

The blueish tinge is just right for this too cool doco.