Laura Poitras honoured

AFI Docs celebrates Citizenfour director.

by Amber Wilkinson

Laura Poitras won an Oscar for Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour
Laura Poitras won an Oscar for Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour

The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced AFI Docs will pay tribute to Laura Poitras — the director of Risk, about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the Academy Award®-winning Edward Snowden portrait Citizenfour (2014) — as the festival's 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.

Each year, the AFI Docs Charles Guggenheim Symposium honours a master of the nonfiction art form. Taking place at the Newseum on June 16, the Symposium will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her work, which includes The Oath, My Country, My Country and Flag Wars.

AFI Docs director Michael Lumpkin said: "Poitras has the extraordinary instinct and ability to put her camera in the heart of history as it unfolds, regardless of the risk. Using her keen eye, Poitras reveals worlds just beyond what we can see. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable career and dedication to the documentary form."

Previous Guggenheim Symposium honorees including Werner Herzog, Albert Maysles, Alex Gibney and DA Pennebaker.

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