Laura Poitras

It really is.

And there in a hotel room, he meets with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, handing them evidence of a surveillance apparatus that just completely defied public comprehension.

It was earth shattering at the time.

And among the most explosive documents in that leak was this 41 slide top secret PowerPoint presentation.

So I think that was among many highlights.

And of course, you have some of the greatest names in documentary here, including Barbara Koppel here with Uniontown and Laura Poitras with the short film as well.

Luke Lorentz, and I mentioned certainly been Oscar shortlisted before.

How

One of the first movies we watched in Sunday Cinema, believe it or not.

And then lastly, something is bound for Oscar glory, and it's They're Here, produced and directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Citizen Four, Laura Poitras, and fearless local filmmaker Rachel Lauren Mueller.

A 22-minute documentary short film that somehow manages to pack a gigantic punch, this nerve-shredding account of ICE's reign of terror across Minneapolis at the very start of this year is an urgent and compulsory watch.

fuck okay so like that one's gonna piss me off just like correct what was the one that from last year that was it like they did it in real time with the all the security cameras

And that's why Sundance is ideally positioned just in terms of when it takes place, because it gives all of those films really about a year to trickle through the documentary community and have screenings around the world and get seen, which, of course, is vital.

By and large, and it's not universally true, if you premiere late in the year, you're going to have a little bit more of a struggle Just with that short runway, there have been exceptions, like All the Beauty in the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras' film that premiered in Venice 10 years ago, the extraordinary documentary by Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro, premiered in Toronto, went on to get an Oscar nomination.

So it happens, but this could be a different year because some incredible films just premiered.

I...

Because I had been working in documentary.

I was working for a filmmaker named Laura Poitras.

And that Snowden doc is called Citizen Four.

And I had been on that project.

Um, uh, and I'll, I'll do the other 10.

Uh, Julie Goldman and Christopher Clements, Steve James, Kirsten Johnson, Stephen Maing, Raoul Peck, Laura Poitras, Kellan Quinn, Sam Pollard, Nanfu Wang, and Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave.

I feel very excited, um, by a lot of the folks that are on here, and just also great artists and also really good humans.

Uh, I, I agree.

Like the exact kind of reception, that kind of stage that we wanted to have the premiere on.

So I co-directed the film with Laura Poitras, who has extensive experience on the world stage.

She won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2015 for her film, All the Beauty in the Bloodshed.

And so she's a familiar face here, but this, for me, it was my very first time performing We premiered the film yesterday evening.