Run. Hide. Live. Snowden hits theaters September 16^th, 2016 and stars Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises). The film written and directed by Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers) details the life of the infamous Edward Snowden, an American computer professional, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) without prior authorization. He revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments.

According to IMDB, the script is based on the books The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena. Harding’s novel tells Snowden’s story—from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend in Honolulu carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of his secret-spilling in Hong Kong, to his battle for asylum and his exile in Moscow, touching on everything from concerns about domestic spying to the complicity of the tech sector. Kucherena’s novel is fictional. It tells the story of an American whistle-blower, Joshua Cold, who, threatened by his government and waiting for a decision on his request for asylum from the Russian authorities, spends three weeks in limbo in the transit area of the Moscow airport. He occupies his time there talking to a Russian lawyer about his life and what motivated him to expose a massive American surveillance program.

The feature film’s predecessor is the 2014 hit documentary Citizenfour. Documentarian, Laura Poitras and reporter, Glenn Greenwald travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from “CITIZENFOUR,” who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. The documentary digs deeply into Snowden’s motivation to reveal classified information, even with all the risks and his day to day life on the run from the U.S. government.

Based on the trailer for Snowden, Oliver Stone nails Edward’s story. You get to see his life before he joined the CIA (his time in the armed forces) and his life after leaking the classified information. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Edward Snowden perfectly, embodying his personality and mannerisms. This film is a must see!

Suggested Articles:

‘Finding Dory’ Sets New Box Office Record

‘Star Trek’ Star Anton Yelchin Dead After Freak Car Accident

The post ‘Snowden’ hits Theaters September 16th! appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The post Actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, recreates Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.