TIFF16 REVIEW: Snowden [2016]

“Secrecy is security and security is victory” Remakes repackaging foreign films for American audiences are justifiable if done correctly. I’d hope our movie-going public would willingly read subtitles and experience the original artist’s vision, but we don’t live in a utopia. Dramatizing non-fiction work is equally acceptable in specific circumstances because a narrative built from talking head interviews is sometimes easier to parse and appreciate than those disparate accounts alone. Where I take umbrage with this trend is when Hollywood uses a documentary—an Oscar-winning documentary no less—and literally re-enacts it…

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REVIEW: The Oath [2010]

“One month is like a year here” Documentarian Laura Poitras‘ The Oath is an intriguing film with a lot going on in—sometimes to its detriment. It wants to be an exposé on America’s false imprisonment of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, a heartfelt look at the guilt of a man responsible for another’s involvement in the Jihad, a commentary on the effect of peaceful interrogation rather than torture, and a portrait of a self-proclaimed terrorist who still aligns himself with the Jihad even if his weapon of choice is now…

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REVIEW: My Country, My Country [2006]

“The outcome of democracy!” It’s amazing how much we take democracy for granted having been born and raised within it for centuries. Only when we look at a nation struggling to adopt the practice can we understand how difficult and ultimately dangerous it can be. We laugh at reports saying candidates buy votes and roll our eyes when new legislation is drawn to specifically target certain demographics by making it harder for their vote to count. We laugh because we’re free to laugh. We’re also free to go to the…

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REVIEW: Citizenfour [2014]

“It’s scary but at the same time liberating” Some films cannot be judged solely on form because their content is too crucial to be swept underneath ideas of aesthetic. Laura Poitras‘ Citizenfour is a perfect example. Its visuals are monotonously static with a majority of sequences depicting conversations between a whistleblower and a reporter inside a hotel room and there’s little information disseminated that hasn’t already been made publically known. To someone like me with only a cursory knowledge of the leak and specifics of the NSA’s surveillance into the…

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