Citizenfour Ungkap Pemantauan AS di Luar Kendali Hadapi Snowden
Snowden Filmmaker Says US Surveillance `Out of Control`
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
BAGI SEBAGIAN besar nominator Oscar, minggu-minggu sebelum puncak acara pada 22 Februari 2015 merupakan saat-saat menegangkan. Namun, Laura Poitras yang memproduksi film mengenai Edward Snowden menilai ibarat jalan sehat di tengah pemantauan Amerika Serikat (AS) yang di luar kendali.
Laura Poitras termasuk salah seorang yang filmnya, "Citizenfour", masuk unggulan meraih Oscar untuk kategori film dokumenter. Ia mendokumentasikan sosok mantan konsultan Badan Keamanan Nasional AS (NSA) Edward Snowden, yang mengungkap masifnya operasi pemantauan intelijen Negeri Paman Sam.
Ia pun menilai, menemukan bahwa hidupnya telah berubah seperti novel mata-mata. Saat paling berisiko adalah ketika ia akan bertemu dengan Snowden di Hongkong bersama wartawan Glenn Greenwald, orang kedua yang dihubungi Snowden.
"Saya mengambil beberapa langkah jaga-jaga yang ekstrim," katanya. Laura juga mempunyai komputer terpisah yang hanya digunakannya di tempat umum.
"Saya tidak membawa telepon seluler selama setahun setelah saya memulai peliputan ini, karena saya tidak ingin menyebarkan lokasi saya," katanya kepada AFP dalam sebuah wawancara di Los Angeles, AS seperti dilansir Yahoo News.
Periode itulah yang diceritakan Laura dalam "Citizenfour", judul film yang merujuk pada nama samaran yang digunakan Snowden saat mengontaknya.
Poitras sudah memenangi sejumlah penghargaan atas film "Citizenfour", termasuk penghargaan film di Inggris (Bafta) untuk kategori film dokumenter terbaik. Piala Oscar akan "memberikan lebih banyak perhatian terkait isu ini, pemantauan," katanya.
Ia meyakini bahwa pengungkapan Snowden, yang mengantarkan dua wartawan Guardian dan Washington Post yang meliputnya memenangi hadiah Pulitzer, juga bakal membantu mendorong "kepedulian atas apa yang dilakukan pemerintah untuk mengumpulkan informasi... dan risiko yang mereka hadapi."
"Orang menggunakan lebih banyak sandi. Google menggunakan lebih banyak sandi server mereka. Orang mungkin akan lebih berhati-hati dengan informasi mengenai mereka," katanya.
Di atas semua itu, ia menilai, pengungkapan tersebut menggarisbawahi bahwa "badan-badan intelijen menjadi di luar kendali dan gerak mereka lebih cepat dari undang-undang yang mengatur mereka."
"Citizenfour", bagian ketiga dari trilogi mengenai perang pemerintah AS melawan terorisme, diproduksi bersama Steven Soderbergh dan disunting oleh Mathilde Bonnefoy dari Prancis.
Film itu memperlihatkan Snowden yang menjelaskan kepada Poitras, Greenwald, dan wartawan Guardian Ewen MacAskill, sistem mata-mata yang dikenal sebagai Prism US, yang memantau data dan komunikasi NSA.
Karya sinematografi tersebut juga menunjukkan bagaimana Snowden yang berusia 31 tahun begitu paranoid terhadap kamera dan telepon. Tirai-tirai hotel ditutupnya, dan Snowden selalu stres saat ada suara keributan. Kita juga melihat dia menjelaskan motivasinya, kekhawatirannya mengenai pacarnya yang dilecehkan, rasa bersalah telah lari dari AS tanpa memberitahunya, dan kemudian bersatu kembali dengannya di Rusia.
Snowden hingga kini masih tetap menjadi buron AS dan tinggal di Moskow.
"Motivasi film ini adalah untuk menceritakan apa yang terjadi, apa motivasi dan kenapa ia mengambil risiko," kata Poitras.
Ia mengatakan, pengakuan atas filmnya "mungkin memberi sedikit perlindungan bagi saya jika sewaktu-waktu pemerintah akan mengejar saya dengan berbagai bentuk upaya hukum."
"Ibarat pedang bermata dua. Orang bisa menghubungi saya dengan proyek-proyek yang tidak akan menyentuh saya sebelumnya, jadi ini profil tinggi. Namun, sebagian besar dari apa yang saya telah lakukan hari ini, saya bisa lakukannya karena saya termasuk orang yang merendah. Jadi, mungkin beberapa orang sekarang berpikir bahwa saya pun sekarang sudah di atas radar."
FOR MOST Oscar nominees, the weeks before the February 22 ceremony are a whirlpool of stress. But Laura Poitras, up for best documentary for Citizenfour, insists it is like going for a healthy walk – compared to what she went through to get here.
When former National Security Agency (NSA) consultant Edward Snowden, who revealed the massive scope of US intelligence surveillance, contacted the filmmaker, she found her life turned into a spy novel.
The most risky time was when she went to meet him in Hong Kong, with journalist Glenn Greenwald, the second person contacted by Snowden.
"I took some extreme precautions," she said, adding that she had a separate computer which she only consulted from public places.
"I didn't carry a cell phone for a year after I started reporting because I didn't want it to start broadcasting my location," she told Agence France-Presse in an interview in Los Angeles.
It was this period that is recounted in Citizenfour, a title which refers to the pseudonym Snowden used when he contacted her.
Poitras has already won a series of prizes for Citizenfour, including a Bafta for best documentary. An Oscar, though, would "get more attention around this issue, surveillance," she said.
She believes that Snowden's revelations, which won Pulitzer prizes for the Guardian and Washington Post journalists who reported them, helped to boost "awareness of what the government is doing to collect information... and the risk they are posing."
"People are using more encryption. Google is using more encryption of their servers. People are probably more careful with their information," she said.
Above all, the revelations have underlined that "intelligence agencies become out of control and are expanding at a faster pace than laws that regulate them," she said.
Citizenfour, the third part of a trilogy about the US government's war on terrorism, was co-produced by Steven Soderbergh and edited by Frenchwoman Mathilde Bonnefoy.
It notably shows Snowden explaining the so-called Prism US spy system, which monitors NSA data and communications, to Poitras, Greenwald and Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill.
It also shows 31-year-old Snowden's paranoia about cameras and telephones. The hotel curtains are drawn; he gets stressed when there are noises. We also see him explaining his motivations, his anxiety about his girlfriend being harassed, guilt at having fled the US without telling her, and then later reuniting with her in Russia.
Snowden remains wanted by the United States, and lives in Moscow.
"The motivation for the film was really to tell the story of what happened, what was the motivation and why he took the risks that he took," Poitras said.
She says recognition for her film "probably provides a bit of shield for me in case the government would like to come after me in any form of legal way."
"It's a double-edged sword. People can contact me with projects who wouldn't have contacted me before, so it's higher profile. But most of the work I've done today I've been able to do it because I was actually kind of low-profile. So maybe now some people could think I'm too over the radar."
