Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films.
[
]
Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
for ''
Citizenfour
''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, ...
'', about
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
, while ''
My Country, My Country
''My Country, My Country'' is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Film
Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a US Army Civil Affairs team during t ...
'' received a nomination in the same category in 2007. She won the 2013
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...
for national security reporting related to the
NSA disclosures. The NSA reporting by Poitras,
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
,
Ewen MacAskill
Ewen MacAskill (born 1951)Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison and Suzanna Andrew"The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light" ''Vanity Fair'', May 2014 is a Scottish journalist. He worked for 22 years on ''The Guardian'', ending his career in ...
, and
Barton Gellman
Barton David Gellman (born 1960) is an American author and journalist known for his reports on September 11 attacks, on Dick Cheney's vice presidency and on the global surveillance disclosure.
Beginning in June 2013, he authored ''The Washington P ...
contributed to the 2014
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...
awarded jointly to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''.
In 2022, her documentary film, ''
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' is a 2022 documentary film which explores the career of Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family. The film was directed by Laura Poitras. Poitras said, "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for year ...
'', which explores the career of
Nan Goldin
Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depe ...
and the fall of the
Sackler family
The Sackler family is an American family who founded and owned the pharmaceutical companies Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical d ...
, was awarded the
Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
, making it the second documentary to win the top prize at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
.
She is a
MacDowell Colony
MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...
Fellow,
2012 MacArthur Fellow, the creator of ''Field of Vision'', and one of the initial supporters of the
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 to fund and support free speech and freedom of the press. The organization originally managed crowd-funding campaigns for independent journalistic organizations, ...
. She was awarded the
I.F. Stone
Isidor Feinstein "I. F." Stone (December 24, 1907 – June 18, 1989) was an American investigative journalist, writer, and author.
Known for his politically progressive views, Stone is best remembered for ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' (1953–1971), ...
Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard's
Nieman Foundation
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...
in 2014.
Poitras was one of the founding editors of the online newspaper, ''
The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
''. On November 30, 2020, Poitras was fired by
First Look Media
First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism".
Overview
The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, ...
, the parent company of ''The Intercept'', allegedly in relation to the
Reality Winner
Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991) is an American former enlisted US Air Force member and NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for unauthorized release of government information to the media a ...
controversy.
Early life
Born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts,
[ Laura Poitras is the middle daughter of Patricia "Pat" and James "Jim" Poitras,] who in 2007 donated $20 million to found The Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research at McGovern Institute for Brain Research
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGover ...
, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. Her parents keep a home in Massachusetts, but live mostly in Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
. Her sisters are Christine Poitras, an ESL
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...
teacher, and Jennifer Poitras, a disaster response planner and consultant.
Growing up, Laura planned to become a chef, and spent several years as a cook at L'Espalier, a French restaurant located in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. However, after finishing Sudbury Valley School
The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by a community of people in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. As of 2019, there are several schools that state that they are based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Australia, Belgiu ...
, she moved to San Francisco and lost interest in becoming a chef. Instead she studied at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
with experimental filmmakers Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr (born 1941)Manohla Dargis ''The New York Times'', November 11, 2011. Retrieved 2013-05-27. is an American experimental filmmaker closely associated with the Structural film movement of the 1970s. A self-taught artist, Gehr was inspired ...
and Janis Crystal Lipzin. In 1992, Poitras moved to New York to pursue filmmaking. In 1996, she graduated from The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
for Public Engagement with a bachelor's degree.
Career
Poitras co-directed, produced, and shot her documentary, '' Flag Wars'' (2003), about gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
. It received a Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
, Best Documentary at both the 2003 South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
(SXSW) film festival and the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Seattle Queer Film Festival (formerly known as the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival) is an annual film festival in Seattle. The 25th Annual Seattle Queer Film Festival will take place October 14–24, 2021. It is the largest LGBTQ film festival ...
, and the Filmmaker Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The film launched the 2003 season of the PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
TV series POV. It was nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award
The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...
and a 2004 Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. Poitras's other early films include ''O' Say Can You See...'' (2003) and ''Exact Fantasy'' (1995).
Her film ''My Country, My Country
''My Country, My Country'' is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Film
Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a US Army Civil Affairs team during t ...
'' (2006), about life for Iraqis under U.S. occupation, was nominated for an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
. ''The Oath The Oath may refer to:
Books
* ''The Oath'' (Wiesel novel), a 1973 novel by Elie Wiesel
* ''The Oath'' (Peretti novel), a 1995 novel by Frank E. Peretti
* '' The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court'', a 2012 book by Jeffrey Toobin ...
'' (2010), concerns two Yemeni men caught up in America's War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
, won the Excellence in Cinematography Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.[
] The two films form parts of a trilogy. The last third ''Citizenfour
''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, ...
'' (2014) details how the War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
increasingly focuses on Americans through surveillance, covert activities, and attacks on whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
s.
On August 22, 2012, in a forum of short documentaries produced by independent filmmakers, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' published an "Op-doc" produced by Poitras entitled ''The Program''. It was preliminary work that was to be included in a documentary planned for release as the final part of the trilogy. The documentary was based on interviews with William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
, who became a whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
and described the details of the Stellar Wind
A stellar wind is a flow of gas ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. It is distinguished from the bipolar outflows characteristic of young stars by being less collimated, although stellar winds are not generally spherically symmetric.
D ...
project that he helped to design. He stated that the program he worked on had been designed for foreign espionage, but was converted in 2001 to spying on citizens in the United States, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional and that led to their disclosures.
''The Program'' implied that a facility being built at Bluffdale, Utah is part of domestic surveillance, intended for storage of massive amounts of data collected from a broad range of communications that could be mined readily for intelligence without warrants. Poitras reported that on October 29, 2012 the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
would hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign po ...
that were used to authorize the creation of such facilities and justify such actions.
In 2012, Poitras took an active part in the three-month exposition of Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...
exhibition of contemporary American art.
Government surveillance
Poitras has been subject to monitoring by the U.S. Government, which she speculates is because of a wire transfer she sent in 2006 to Riyadh al-Adhadh, the Iraqi medical doctor and Sunni political candidate who was the subject of her 2006 documentary ''My Country, My Country
''My Country, My Country'' is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Film
Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a US Army Civil Affairs team during t ...
''. After completing ''My Country, My Country'', Poitras claims, "I've been placed on the Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
's (DHS) watch list" and have been notified by airport security "that my 'threat rating' was the highest the Department of Homeland Security assigns". She says her work has been hampered by constant harassment by border agents during more than three dozen border crossings into and out of the United States. She has been detained for hours and interrogated and agents have seized her computer, cell phone and reporters notes and not returned them for weeks. Once she was threatened with being refused entry back into the United States. In response to a Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
article on this issue, a group of film directors began a petition to protest against the government's actions towards her. In April 2012, Poitras was interviewed about surveillance on ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' and called elected leaders' behavior "shameful".
2015 lawsuit over government harassment
In January 2014, Poitras filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
to learn the reason for being searched, detained and interrogated on multiple occasions. After receiving no response to her FOIA request, Poitras filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and other security agencies in July 2015. More than a year later, Poitras received 1,000+ pages of material from the federal government. The documents indicate that Poitras's repeated detainments were due to U.S. government suspicion that she had prior knowledge of a 2004 ambush on U.S. troops in Iraq, an allegation Poitras denies.
Global surveillance disclosures
In 2013, Poitras was one of the initial three journalists to meet Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
in Hong Kong and to receive copies of leaked NSA documents. Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
are the only two people with full archives of Snowden's leaked NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
documents, according to Greenwald.[
Poitras helped to produce stories exposing previously secret U.S. intelligence activities, which earned her the 2013 ]Polk award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...
and contributed to the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...
awarded jointly to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. She later worked with Jacob Appelbaum
Jacob Appelbaum (born 1 April 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, and hacker. He studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology and was a core member of the Tor project, a free software network des ...
and writers and editors at ''Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' to cover disclosures about mass surveillance, particularly those relating to NSA activity in Germany. She later revealed in her documentary ''Risk'' that she had a brief romantic relationship with Appelbaum.
She filmed, edited, and produced Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's alternative to the Royal Christmas Message
The King's Christmas Message (also known as The Queen's Christmas Message in the reign of a female monarch, formally as His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech, and informally as the Royal Christmas Message) is a broadcast made by the sovereign of t ...
by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
in 2013, the "Alternative Christmas Message
The alternative Christmas message is a message broadcast by Channel 4 since 1993, as a sometimes humorous and sometimes serious alternative to the traditional Royal Christmas Message.
Background
Beginning in 1993, Channel 4 broadcast an "alterna ...
", featuring Edward Snowden.
In October 2013, Poitras joined with reporters Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill (born October 18, 1974) is an American investigative journalist, writer, a founding editor of the online news publication ''The Intercept,'' and author of '' Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army'', which ...
to establish an on-line investigative journalism publishing venture funded by eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
billionaire Pierre Omidyar
Pierre Morad Omidyar (born Parviz Morad Omidyar, June 21, 1967) is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the founder of eBay, where he served as chairman from 199 ...
, which became First Look Media
First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism".
Overview
The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, ...
. Omidyar's "concern about press freedoms in the US and around the world" sparked the idea for the new media outlet. The first publication from that group, a digital magazine called ''The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'', launched on February 10, 2014. Poitras stood down from her editorial role in September 2016 to focus on ''Field of Vision'', a First Look Media project focused on non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
s.
On March 21, 2014, Poitras joined Greenwald and Barton Gellman via Skype on a panel at the Sources and Secrets Conference to discuss the legal and professional threats to journalists covering national security surveillance and whistleblower stories, like that of Edward Snowden. Poitras was asked if she would hazard an entry into the United States and she responded that she planned to attend an April 11 event, regardless of the legal or professional threats posed by US authorities. Poitras and Greenwald returned to the US to receive their awards unimpeded.
In May 2014, Poitras was reunited with Snowden in Moscow along with Greenwald.
In September 2021, Yahoo! News
Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...
reported that in 2017, after the publication of the Vault 7
Vault 7 is a series of documents that WikiLeaks began to publish on 7 March 2017, detailing the activities and capabilities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare. The files, dating fr ...
files by WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
, "top intelligence officials lobbied the White House" to designate Poitras as an "information broker" to allow for more investigative tools against her, "potentially paving the way" for her prosecution. However, the White House rejected this idea. Poitras told Yahoo! News that such attempts were "bone-chilling and a threat to journalists worldwide."
''1971'' documentary
''1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
'' is a documentary film co-produced by Poitras. The film, about the 1971 Media, Pennsylvania
Media is a borough in and the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It is located about west of Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation with 1.6 million residents as 2020. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolita ...
raid of FBI offices, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
on April 18, 2014.
''Citizenfour'' (2014)
''Citizenfour'' is a documentary about Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
that premiered on October 10, 2014, at New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...
. In 2014, Poitras told the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
she was editing the film in Berlin because she feared her source material would be seized by the government inside the U.S. Film executive Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films inclu ...
said ''Citizenfour'' had changed his opinion about Edward Snowden, describing the documentary as "one of the best movies, period."
In an interview with ''The Washington Post'' about ''Citizenfour'' shortly before the film's release, Poitras said that she considered herself to be the narrator of the film but made a choice not to be seen on camera: "I come from a filmmaking tradition where I'm using the camera—it's my lens to express the filmmaking I do. In the same way that a writer uses their language, for me it's the images that tell the story ... the camera is my tool for documenting things, so I stay mostly behind it."
''Citizenfour'' won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
of 2014.
Poitras is portrayed by actress Melissa Leo
Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Critics' Choice A ...
in the biographical drama film '' Snowden'' (2016), directed by Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances ...
as Snowden.
''Astro Noise''
Poitras's solo exhibition, ''Astro Noise'', opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
in February 2016, portraying immersive environments that incorporate documentary footage, architectural interventions, primary documents, and narrative structures to invite visitors to interact with the material gathered by Poitras in strikingly intimate and direct ways.
''Risk'' (2016)
Poitras authored a documentary called ''Risk'', on the life of Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...
. According to ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', the film shows Assange is "willing to put everything on the line, risking imprisonment and worse to publish information he believes the public has a right to know".
Poitras and others described Assange's statements about women as "troubling". Assange alleges in the film that he is the victim of a radical feminist conspiracy over his being wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations by the Swedish authorities. In the film, he argues that one of the women in question had potentially alternate motivation because she founded Gothenburg’s largest lesbian nightclub. According to Poitras, Assange disapproved of the film because it included scenes showing his "troubling relationship with women".
In May 2017, WikiLeaks' four lawyers publicly wrote an opinion piece for ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' stating that the film serves to undermine WikiLeaks at a time when the Trump administration announced that it intends to prosecute journalists, editors and associates of WikiLeaks. The lawyers also scrutinize the way in which Poitras changed the film after its premiere in 2016 as well as other critical aspects.
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' (2022)
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' is a 2022 documentary film which explores the career of Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family. The film was directed by Laura Poitras. Poitras said, "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for year ...
'' is a 2022 documentary film which examines the life and career of photographer and activist Nan Goldin
Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depe ...
and her efforts to hold Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company, is an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was owned principally by members of the Sackler family as descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler ...
, owned by the Sackler family
The Sackler family is an American family who founded and owned the pharmaceutical companies Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical d ...
, accountable for the opioid epidemic
The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It includes the sign ...
. Goldin, a well known photographer whose work often documented the LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
subcultures and the HIV/AIDS crisis, founded the advocacy group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) in 2017 after her own addiction to Oxycontin
Oxycodone, sold under various brand names such as Roxicodone and OxyContin (which is the extended release form), is a strong, semi-synthetic opioid used medically for treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is highly addictive and a commonly ...
. P.A.I.N. specifically targets museums and other arts institutions to hold the art community accountable for it collaboration with the Sackler family and its well publicized financial support of the arts. The film was directed by Poitras. Poitras said, "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for years, and has influenced generations of filmmakers." The film premiered on September 3, 2022, at the 79th Venice International Film Festival
The 79th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August to 10 September 2022.
Juries
Main Competition (Venezia 79)
* Julianne Moore, American actress and author (Jury President)
* Mariano Cohn, Argentine director, screenw ...
, where it was awarded the Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
making it the second documentary (following ''Sacro GRA
''Sacro GRA'' (, Italian language, Italian for "Holy Grande Raccordo Anulare, GRA") is a 2013 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi (director), Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. ...
'' in 2013) to win the top prize at Venice. It also will screen at the 2022 New York Film Festival,[ where it will be the festival's centerpiece film and the official poster will be designed by Goldin. The film's distributor, ]Neon
Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...
, said that the theatrical release would coincide with a retrospective of Goldin's work at the Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...
, set to open October 29, 2022.
Selected awards and honours
* 2008: Creative Capital
Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...
Award in Moving Image
* 2010: True Vision Award, True/False Film Festival
True/False Film Fest is an annual documentary film festival that takes place in Columbia, Missouri. The Fest occurs on the first weekend in March (sometimes beginning in late February), with films being shown from Thursday evening to Sunday nig ...
, Columbia, MO
* 2010: Anonymous Was A Woman Award
The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world. It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding in ...
* 2012: MacArthur Fellows
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
hip
* 2013: Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
's Pioneer Award (with three other people)
* 2013: George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...
for National Security Reporting (with Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
and Ewen MacAskill)
* 2014: Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize (with Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
)
* 2014: Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...
(awarded to ''The Washington Post'' and ''The Guardian'' for the NSA reporting on which she worked, along with Barton Gellman
Barton David Gellman (born 1960) is an American author and journalist known for his reports on September 11 attacks, on Dick Cheney's vice presidency and on the global surveillance disclosure.
Beginning in June 2013, he authored ''The Washington P ...
, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill)
* 2014: Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...
for Large Newspapers (awarded to ''The Washington Post'' for five stories on the NSA)
* 2015: Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
(for ''Citizenfour
''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, ...
'')
* 2015: German Film Award for Best Documentary Film
The German Film Award for Best Documentary Film () is the award given to the best feature-length cinema documentary produced with majoritarian German funding. The current category was introduced in 2000, although numerous similar categories were ...
(for ''Citizenfour'')
* 2022: Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
, Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
(for ''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' is a 2022 documentary film which explores the career of Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family. The film was directed by Laura Poitras. Poitras said, "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for year ...
'')
Selected filmography
* ''Exact Fantasy'' (1995)
* '' Flag Wars'' (2003)
* ''Oh Say Can You See...'' (2003)
* ''My Country, My Country
''My Country, My Country'' is a 2006 documentary film about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Film
Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a US Army Civil Affairs team during t ...
'' (2006)
* ''The Oath The Oath may refer to:
Books
* ''The Oath'' (Wiesel novel), a 1973 novel by Elie Wiesel
* ''The Oath'' (Peretti novel), a 1995 novel by Frank E. Peretti
* '' The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court'', a 2012 book by Jeffrey Toobin ...
'' (2010)
* ''Citizenfour
''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, ...
'' (2014)
* ''Risk
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
'' (2016)
* '' The Year of the Everlasting Storm'' (2021)
* ''Terror Contagion'' (2021)
* ''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' is a 2022 documentary film which explores the career of Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family. The film was directed by Laura Poitras. Poitras said, "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for year ...
'' (2022)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poitras, Laura
1964 births
Artists from Boston
American film producers
American women journalists
American documentary film producers
Articles containing video clips
American expatriates in Germany
Directors Guild of America Award winners
Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
Film directors from Massachusetts
George Polk Award recipients
Gerald Loeb Award winners for Large Newspapers
Lesbians
LGBT journalists from the United States
Living people
MacArthur Fellows
Place of birth missing (living people)
The New School alumni
American women documentary filmmakers
21st-century American women
Directors of Golden Lion winners