30 Facts About Laura Poitras

Laura Poitras is an American director and producer of documentary films.

Laura Poitras won the 2013 George Polk Award for national security reporting related to the NSA disclosures.

Laura Poitras is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, 2012 MacArthur Fellow, the creator of Field of Vision, and one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Laura Poitras was one of the founding editors of the online newspaper, The Intercept.

On November 30,2020, Laura Poitras was fired by First Look Media, the parent company of The Intercept, allegedly in relation to the Reality Winner controversy.

Laura Poitras's parents keep a home in Massachusetts, but live mostly in Orlando, Florida.

Laura Poitras's sisters are Christine Poitras, an ESL teacher, and Jennifer Poitras, a disaster response planner and consultant.

In 1992, Laura Poitras moved to New York to pursue filmmaking.

Laura Poitras co-directed, produced, and shot her documentary, Flag Wars, about gentrification in Columbus, Ohio.

Laura Poitras stated that the program he worked on had been designed for foreign espionage, but was converted in 2001 to spying on citizens in the United States, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional and that led to their disclosures.

Laura Poitras reported that on October 29,2012 the United States Supreme Court would hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were used to authorize the creation of such facilities and justify such actions.

In 2012, Laura Poitras took an active part in the three-month exposition of Whitney Biennial exhibition of contemporary American art.

Laura Poitras has been subject to monitoring by the US Government, which she speculates is because of a wire transfer she sent in 2006 to Riyadh al-Adhadh, the Iraqi medical doctor and Sunni political candidate who was the subject of her 2006 documentary My Country, My Country.

Laura Poitras says her work has been hampered by constant harassment by border agents during more than three dozen border crossings into and out of the United States.

Laura Poitras has been detained for hours and interrogated and agents have seized her computer, cell phone and reporters notes and not returned them for weeks.

In January 2014, Laura Poitras filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to learn the reason for being searched, detained and interrogated on multiple occasions.

The documents indicate that Laura Poitras's repeated detainments were due to US government suspicion that she had prior knowledge of a 2004 ambush on US troops in Iraq, an allegation Laura Poitras denies.

In 2013, Laura Poitras was one of the initial three journalists to meet Edward Snowden in Hong Kong and to receive copies of leaked NSA documents.

Laura Poitras helped to produce stories exposing previously secret US intelligence activities, which earned her the 2013 Polk award and contributed to the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service awarded jointly to The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Laura Poitras later worked with Jacob Appelbaum and writers and editors at Der Spiegel to cover disclosures about mass surveillance, particularly those relating to NSA activity in Germany.

Laura Poitras later revealed in her documentary Risk that she had a brief romantic relationship with Appelbaum.

Laura Poitras filmed, edited, and produced Channel 4's alternative to the Royal Christmas Message by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, the "Alternative Christmas Message", featuring Edward Snowden.

In October 2013, Laura Poitras joined with reporters Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill to establish an on-line investigative journalism publishing venture funded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar, which became First Look Media.

Laura Poitras stood down from her editorial role in September 2016 to focus on Field of Vision, a First Look Media project focused on non-fiction films.

On March 21,2014, Laura Poitras joined Greenwald and Barton Gellman via Skype on a panel at the Sources and Secrets Conference to discuss the legal and professional threats to journalists covering national security surveillance and whistleblower stories, like that of Edward Snowden.

In May 2014, Laura Poitras was reunited with Snowden in Moscow along with Greenwald.

Laura Poitras was one of the journalists who worked with Snowden to publicize the information along with journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Laura Poitras is portrayed by actress Melissa Leo in the biographical drama film Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden.

Laura Poitras authored a documentary called Risk, on the life of Julian Assange.

The lawyers scrutinize the way in which Laura Poitras changed the film after its premiere in 2016 as well as other critical aspects.