'What the War on Terror Actually Looks Like': Laura Poitras on Citizenfour

An interview with the filmmaker as her documentary on mass surveillance hits theaters
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

The ultimate insider's exposé of the National Security Agency is about to hit theaters. When Citizenfour opens Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras will have given moviegoers an unprecedented look at whistleblower Edward Snowden as he pulled back the curtain on mass surveillance in the United States and the world. This week, I spoke to Poitras about her body of work, including Citizenfour (I reviewed the film here after a press screening), The Oath, her movie on the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and My Country, My Country, her Iraq War documentary. This interview has been edited and condensed for the sake of clarity.


Conor Friedersdorf: What prompted you to become a dissenter?

Laura Poitras: It was a response to historical circumstances, particularly the buildup to the Iraq War and the prison at Guantanamo. I thought that there was a moral drift, that we'd look back on post-9/11 America as a dark chapter in U.S. history. To have a prison where people are sent without charges, and then engaging in a preemptive war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11—that seemed like a frightening precedent, that we're going to attack a country because we think it might cause us harm in the future. I felt that these were dark times, that I felt compelled to say something about it, and that as a documentarian I had skills that would help me channel my impressions and thoughts.

At the very least, I would create a historical record. I don't know if my work changed anyone's opinion. The Iraq War continued for a long time. Guantanamo is still open. But I wanted to express something about a drift away from the rule of law and basic principles of democracy, to document what was happening. I thought I was choosing whether to make a film about the Iraq War or Guantanamo. When I finished My Country, My Country, the film on Iraq, I was shocked that Guantanamo was still open. It was 2005 when I knew I'd take a broader look at post-9/11 America, and that it would probably occupy me for a long time.

Friedersdorf: Once you've chosen to make a film about a subject, you go out and do a lot of reporting. Does that process tend to confirm whatever impressions peaked your interest, or are you surprised by aspects of what you're trying to portray?

Poitras: I go into a story with interest in certain broad themes and try to see where I can document them. So I spend time on the ground and start filming people. And then things change. It stops becoming about my preconceptions of a situation and becomes about whoever I'm spending time with. I look at political issues through people experiencing them rather than personal opinions. They become the lens through which I understand what's happening.

When I went to Iraq, I thought this idea of occupation to bring democracy was contradictory, that it would not turn out well. But when I got there and started meeting Iraqis—when I saw their perspective after living under 30 years of a brutal dictator—I had to shift from whatever my New York perspective of the Iraq War was to what it was like for people who live in Iraq. So for instance, I was very cynical of the democracy project that the United States brought in, but I also witnessed people who were willing to put their lives on the line to vote. And I have to say that I don't know many Americans who would put their lives on the line to vote.

There was just a hunger for democracy.

People would talk about politics over dinner for four hours. It was more politically engaged than what I'd experienced in the U.S. So I had to shift my preconceptions. I still thought the circumstances under which these elections were going to happen was not really how you wanted self-determination to unfold. Americans were behind the scenes orchestrating things, and we're seeing the fallout.

But my impressions did change, because I had to have more respect for what Iraqis wanted. There's an openness to the process of making films that I'm interested in. Hopefully the audience will find characters they like or don't like, impressions with which they agree or disagree. It's not just about imprinting my opinions.

Friedersdorf: After your films on Iraq and Guantanamo you delved into the subject of surveillance. Why?

Poitras: I began documenting something in an observational way and then got pulled into the history that I was documenting. That certainly happened when I was put on a watch list by the U.S. government and began to be detained at borders. But it wasn't just because I was put on a watch list that I was interested in surveillance.

Over the course of my films, I've shifted from thinking that the pendulum swung in one direction after 9/11 and would swing back, to being less naive about the choices that were made. Surveillance is one of the ways the national-security state expanded after 9/11. I always thought that, after doing the Guantanamo film, I wanted to do something to bring the story home, and surveillance is set in the U.S. But it seemed like a tough theme to approach in a documentary because it's hidden.

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Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.

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