Troublemakers: Laura Poitras and the problem of dissent |
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| Authors: | ALEX DANCHEV |
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| Institution: | Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and the recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2014–17. |
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| Abstract: | This review article considers three works by the distinguished documentary film‐maker Laura Poitras: My country, my country (2006); The oath (2010); and the recently released Citizenfour (2014), focusing on the whistle‐blower Edward Snowden. Poitras describes these works as a trilogy about American power after 9/11, but they are also about disobedience and resistance, or the problem of dissent. The article argues for the significance (and the virtue) of Poitras's project, as film maker and troublemaker, and for the necessity of what Solzhenitsyn calls civil valour. |
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