We meet our hero holed up in the Mira Hotel, in Hong Kong. At first
glance he seems an unlikely hero; Gaunt, unimposing, wearing a nervous
smile that threatens to trivialize what he has to say. Until then, he
was only known to documentarian Laura Poitras
by his online alias, 'citizenfour'. Within a week his true moniker,
Edward Snowden, would become a household name, and the revelations he
brought to light in that hotel room in the summer of 2013 continue to
reverberate through the public consciousness.
He is the central figure of Poitras' much-talked-about documentary
Citizenfour, her
first-hand account of Snowden -- then a 29 year old data analyst with
the National Security Agency -- exposing the defamed intelligence
service for spying on millions
of Americans, and then some. His whistleblowing has since caused him to
take political asylum in Russia where he remains to this day, knowing
well that he would be arrested on sight should he ever again set foot in
the United States.
