If you haven't seen "Ctizenfour" in a theater, here's why I think you should move heaven and earth to see it tonight at 9 on HBO.
The Oscar it won Sunday for best documentary was just icing on the cake. It was already widely celebrated since its release in theaters, winning honors from numerous film critics groups.
There's no question of its quality; it's another extraordinary work of documentary filmmaking by Laura Poitras ("My Country, My Country").
But here's why it really matters now. Today.
The administration of President Barack Obama, which has authorized unprecedented intrusions into our privacy and used every bit of the massive power at its disposal to silence anyone in government who would question its actions, has tried to brand Edward Snowden as a traitor.
He has become the Obama administration's Public Enemy No. 1, and it has used the techniques of pure propaganda to vilify him.
What recourse would any whistleblower have against such forces?
Well, in this case, Snowden had filmmaker Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald to tell his story and to get the message and data he wanted seen and heard to citizens.
Much of this film is shot in a hotel room in Hong Kong as Snowden is interviewed by Greenwald. Snowden walks him through the sea of evidence he has gathered on the extent of unauthorized spying on citizens of the United States.
I guarantee you this: If you spend two hours with this film tonight, you will sleep a lot less soundly wondering how we got to the place we're at since 9/11.
And you will never see this administration, which Candidate Obama promised would be the most transparent in history, in the same way.