Edward Snowden in popular culture

Edward Snowden in popular culture is part of the reactions to global surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden. His impact as a public figure has been felt in cinema, advertising, video games, literature, music, statuary, and social media.

Edward Snowden
Snowden in Moscow, October 9, 2013

Cinema

Shorts

Snowden's passage through Hong Kong inspired a local production team to produce a low-budget five-minute film titled Verax. The film, depicting the time Snowden spent hiding in the Mira Hotel while being unsuccessfully tracked by the CIA and China's Ministry of State Security, was uploaded to YouTube in June 2013.[1][2]

Feature films

A dramatic thriller, Classified: The Edward Snowden Story, was released on September 19, 2014. This feature-length film, which was crowdfunded and offered as a free download, was directed by Jason Bourque and produced by Travis Doering. Actor Kevin Zegers played Edward Snowden, Michael Shanks played Glenn Greenwald and Carmen Aguirre played Laura Poitras.[3]

In 2014, film director Oliver Stone bought the rights to Time of the Octopus, a forthcoming novel based on Snowden's life and written by his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena. Stone said he would use both Kucherena's book and Luke Harding's nonfiction The Snowden Files for the screenplay of his movie, which began production later in 2014.[4] Stone's biopic Snowden, which was released in September 2016, had Snowden portrayed by American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with a short appearance by Snowden himself in the last few minutes of the film. Shortly before release, Stone said that Snowden should be pardoned, calling him a "patriot above all" and suggesting that he should run the NSA himself.[5]

Snowden appears briefly as a character in the 2018 comedy-thriller The Spy Who Dumped Me, in which he is played by British actor Tom Stourton.

Documentaries

On October 10, 2014, Citizenfour, a documentary about Snowden, received its world premiere at the New York Film Festival.[6] Earlier that year, director Laura Poitras told Associated Press she was editing the film in Berlin because she feared her source material would be seized by the government inside the U.S.[7] The two-hour film was shot in various countries, tracing Snowden's time in Hong Kong and Moscow.[8] The film was released in the U.S. and Europe to wide acclaim from critics,[9] and won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[10] Snowden declared in a February 2015 Reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything") that he had no commercial interest in the film.[11]

In October 2014, Killswitch, a film that features Snowden as well as Aaron Swartz, Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu, received its world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Editing. It has since played alongside Citizenfour at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and has continued an international film festival run. The film probes the efforts of big business to control the Internet, the efforts of government to regulate it, the efforts of hacktivists to free up information worldwide and the consequences.[12][13][14]

A second Snowden documentary, titled Snowden's Great Escape, coproduced by Germany's Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Denmark's DR TV, was released in 2015. Filmed in Moscow, it incorporated two new interviews with Snowden and was awarded first prize in the documentaries category by Deutsche Fernsehakademie.[15]

In June 2018 as part of the anniversary of the revelations from Snowden, the documentary "Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or Spy", produced by Signpost Film Productions [16] and GTV,[17] was released on Norwegian, Danish and Dutch Television and is continuing its further international release. The documentary presents interviews with participants and witnesses, some of whom have never before spoken on camera, and aims to incorporate the wide variety of views on the revelations. The documentary had a Festival release on the 4th of October 2018 at the Fraud Film Festival [18] and was shown at the Cyber Security week also on the 4th of October 2018, both in the Netherlands.[19]

Television

Homeland, an American television series on Showtime, had an hours-long video call with Snowden to inform the writers and actors on storylines for the show. This was prior to him doing interviews or documentaries.[20]

Animaniacs (2020) featured a parody of Snowden on Pinky and the Brain, where he is depicted as having an unhealthy fixation on his vast houseplant collection. He helps the duo break into the NSA as part of their plan to take over the world, but only in exchange for "rescuing" a beloved rare fern from his old office.

Advertising

In the District of Columbia, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), a free speech advocacy group, crowdfunded an ad saying "Thank You Edward Snowden" that was featured on the sides of a D.C. city bus for four weeks in late 2013.[21][22] The PCJF said they received enough support from around the world to sponsor partial ads on five more buses in 2014.[23]

Video games

Snowden has been featured in video games[24][25] and has an action figure made in his image. Although not endorsed by Snowden, proceeds from the $99 doll are donated to Freedom of the Press Foundation, where he serves on the board of directors.[26][27]

Graphic novel

In May 2014, Beyond: Edward Snowden, a graphic novel by Marvel Comics writer Valerie D'Orazio, illustrated by Dan Lauer, appeared in both print and digital editions as part a new series from Bluewater Productions, which the publisher said would reveal secret and suppressed stories.[28][29]

Music

On February 9, 2015, electronic pop producer Big Data released a song called "Snowed In" that featured vocals from Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo from his debut album, 2.0. The song's lyrics, inspired by Snowden, are told from the perspective of the NSA, alternating between inner dialogue and statements made to the press.[30]

In 2016, Snowden provided the vocals for a track titled "Exit" by digital composer Jean-Michel Jarre. The track interspersed a beat and a few notes with a recorded monologue by Snowden expressing views about digital privacy. Business news publication Quartz described it as "not exactly music" and part of a "gimmicky new wave of political audio".[31]

In 2016, the rock band Thrice released a song titled "Whistleblower" off of the album To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere. The song is written from the perspective of Snowden.[32]

In 2017, Australian Metalcore band Northlane released the song 'Citizen' off of the album "Mesmer". The song's lyrics discuss whisteblowers exposing governments' surveillance of the general population, and ends with the lyric "Thank you Mr. Snow", directly referring to Snowden.

Statuary

On the April 5, 2015, episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver interviewed Snowden in Moscow.[33][34][35] The next day, activists briefly attached a bust of Snowden to the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, New York City, before being taken down by city officials.[36][37] Hours after the statue was removed, it was replaced by an ephemeral hologram image of Snowden.[38][39][40] Authorities later returned the statue to its artists.[41]

On May Day 2015, an art installation by Italian Davide Dormino titled Anything to Say? was placed in Berlin's Alexanderplatz. It featured bronze sculptures of Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning standing on chairs beside a fourth, empty chair meant as a platform for public speaking.[42][43]

Social media

Snowden opened a Twitter account on September 29, 2015, amassing over a million followers in the first 24 hours; he followed only the NSA.[44] His first tweet received 121,728 retweets and 117,750 favorites.[45]

References
  1. "[v e r a x ] : Edward Snowden / ??? - Short Film". YouTube. JShotVideo. June 25, 2013. Archived from the original (Video 5 Minuten) on March 28, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  2. Maierbrugger, Arno (July 4, 2013). "Ready at last: Hong Kong director presents Snowden movie". Investvine. Archived from the original on March 16, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  3. Kharpal, Arjun (September 10, 2013). "Filmmakers look to crowdfunding for Snowden movie". Consumer News and Business Channel. Archived from the original on March 16, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  4. Walker, Shaun. "Oliver Stone to make movie based on fictionalised life of Edward Snowden". The Guardian. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  5. Mesley, Wendy (September 11, 2016). Oliver Stone on Edward Snowden and privacy rights. The National. CBC News.
  6. "Citizenfour film". filmlinc.com. September 10, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  7. "Snowden Documentary to Premiere at NY Festival". ABC News. Associated Press. July 1, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  8. "Hong Kong in cinema spotlight in documentary on Edward Snowden". South China Morning Post. October 11, 2014.
  9. "Citizenfour (2014): Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  10. "The 87th Academy Awards". oscars.org. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  11. "We are Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald from the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR". Reddit. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  12. von Busack, Richard. "Breaking the Internet: Killswitch Screens at Cinequest". Metro Silicon Valley. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  13. "Battle for Internet Control Fuels O.C. -produced Movie". Orange County Register. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  14. "Killswitch". International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  15. NDR. "Preis der Deutschen Fernsehakademie für NDR Koproduktion "Jagd auf Snowden"". www.ndr.de.
  16. https://signpostfilmproductions.com/snowden/
  17. http://www.gtv.ae/
  18. https://fraudefilmfestival.nl/en/programma/
  19. https://www.cybersecurityweek.nl/programme/edward-snowden-whistleblower-or-spy
  20. "'Homeland' Declassified: Battles, Backlash, CIA Meetings and a Secret Call With Edward Snowden". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  21. Kopan, Tal. "Edward Snowden pic coming to D.C. buses". Politico. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  22. Ly, Sherri. "Metro bus ad thanks NSA leaker Edward Snowden". Archived from the original on November 26, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  23. Hughes, Sarah Anne. "More Snowden Bus Ads Coming To D.C." DCist. Archived from the original on January 5, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  24. "Yes, already: Two video games about Edward Snowden and stealthy data". NBC News. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  25. Sundby, Alex. "Edward Snowden cast as hero in smartphone game". CNET. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  26. "No Secret: Edward Snowden Gets Own Action Figure". NBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  27. Kooser, Amanda. "Edward Snowden action figure makes for toy whistle-blower". CNET. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  28. Flood, Alison. "Edward Snowden gets his own graphic biography". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  29. Feeney, Nolan (May 19, 2014). "Edward Snowden, Comic-Book Hero". TIME. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  30. Sharp, Tyler (February 9, 2015). "Rivers Cuomo guests on new Big Data track, "Snowed In"". Alternative Press. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  31. "Edward Snowden hooked up with a French electronica artist to cut a track about cybersecurity". Quartz. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  32. Montemarano, Mike. "'Blood on the Sand:' A Conversation With Thrice". Baeble Music. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  33. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Government Surveillance (HBO). YouTube. April 5, 2015. Event occurs at 15m53s. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  34. Greenwald, Glenn (April 6, 2015). "Why john oliver can't find americans who know Edward Snowden's name (it's not about Snowden)". Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  35. Stelter, Brian (April 6, 2015). "John Oliver lands Edward Snowden interview from Russia". CNN. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  36. Yuhas, Alan (April 6, 2015). "Busted: Edward Snowden statue prompts cover-up at Brooklyn park". The Guardian. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  37. Sifferlin, Alexandra (April 6, 2015). "New York City Takes Down Edward Snowden Statue Erected By Guerilla Artists". Time. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  38. Ries, Brian (April 7, 2015). "Hologram replaces Edward Snowden statue in Brooklyn park". Mashable. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  39. Fishbein, Rebecca; Depew, Kyle, Photographer (April 7, 2015). "Illicit Edward Snowden Statue Replaced By Illicit Edward Snowden Hologram". Gothamist. Archived from the original on April 8, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  40. Sanders, Sam (April 7, 2015). "An Edward Snowden Statue Was Replaced By A Hovering Snowden Image Last Night". National Public Radio. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  41. "Artists who displayed Edward Snowden statue in New York park escape charges". The Guardian. Associated Press. May 6, 2015.
  42. Statues Of Whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning Unveiled in Berlin, Germany at Inquisitr.com; published May 2, 2015; retrieved May 5, 2015
  43. Holy Trinity of whistleblowers: Statues of Assange, Snowden and Manning go up in Berlin (VIDEO) at RT; published May 2, 2015; updated May 3, 2015; retrieved May 5, 2015
  44. Mullin, Joe. "Ed Snowden joins Twitter, follows only the NSA". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  45. Haq, Husna. "Edward Snowden just joined Twitter. He's already creating a stir (+video)". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
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