Filmmaker, journalist and artist Laura Poitras is well known for being one of the loudest voices in documentary filmmaking. In 2003, she was awarded, amongst others, a prestigious Peabody award for her debut documentary Flag Wars in which the conflicts that arise when gay white professionals move into a black working-class neighborhood are examined. Poitras followed this with the Oscar-nominated My Country, My Country, a remarkably intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her devoted passion to putting global issues under a microscope was next seen in 2010’s The Oath, a riveting portrait of a set of circumstances that sparks a deeper discuss about one country’s collective behaviour. In 2015, she won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Citizenfour, and in doing so she collected the first Oscar for a female documentary director in twenty years.
Our Laura Poitras Collection features some of her finest films together for the very first time. Discover them below, and let us know how many you have watched by completing our Letterboxd List!
RISK (2016)
In 'Risk' (2016) Poitras examines the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, looking at how he came to be an internationally notorious figure, and interviews him to examine his position on recent events. In 2010 Assange lived in rural Norfolk, England and was trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he was wanted for questioning regarding accusations of sexual assault. Following this, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and continued the regular leaks performed by his organisation. The culmination of his involvement in current affairs came with his precisely timed revelation of unredacted diplomatic cables during the already explosive 2016 United States presidential race. Poitras provides an intimate portrait of Assange and highlights how her own perspective on the man changes as her proximity to him lays bare megalomania and hypocrisy.
CITIZENFOUR (2014)
'Citizenfour' (2014) follows reporter Glenn Greenwald and film-maker Poitras as they travel to Hong Kong to meet with former CIA and NSA employee Edward Snowden in the days leading up to the leak of classified information which revealed a number of global surveillance programs.
THE OATH (2010)
'The Oath' (2010) focuses on two men who were involved in Al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, Abu Jandal, reflects on his past and shares his opinions on the Western world. He is now working as a taxi driver and living in Yemen. Jandal's brother-in-law and bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, met a much worse fate - he was found guilty of terrorism and resides in Guantanamo Bay's military prison, though he claims to be innocent. Jandal and the rest of Hamdan's family continue to fight for his freedom, despite knowing they are unlikely to ever succeed in their campaign.
MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY (2016)
Working alone in Iraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. An outspoken critic of the occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish democracy in Iraq, arguing that Sunni participation in the January 2005 elections is essential. Yet all around him, Dr. Riyadh sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence. Dramatically interwoven into the personal journey of Dr. Riyadh is the landscape of the US military occupation, with Australian private security contractors, American journalists and the UN officials who orchestrate the elections. Unfolding like a narrative drama, ‘My Country, My Country’ (2016) follows the agonizing predicament and gradual descent of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.
