Oscars for whistleblowers

I didn’t watch the Oscars last night,  for the first time in awhile. But it turned out to be a fine night for the folks who inhabit this book.

 In a surprise (at least to me), Best Short Documentary Feature went to Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, which all of us need to see, at least as long as vets commit suicide at a rate of 22 per day.

http://oscar.go.com/embed/VDKA0_1oz7ehpx

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Less surprising, but even more gratifying: Best Documentary to Citizen Four, Laura Poitras’ film about Edward Snowden. That one I plan to see ASAP, now that it’s screening on HBO tonight. And even though he chose never to answer the list of questions I sent him, I applaud the dude for affirming Poitras in his own response to this win, and thank the ACLU for conveying both that statement and my letter to him.

Speaking 0f Snowden, Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone is proceeding with his Snowden biopic. I’ve never gotten that interview wiith that Vietnam vet and director of one of the most important filmic chronicles of veteran dissent; now I wish I could share my Snowden questions with him.