Watch the First Meeting With NSA Leaker Edward Snowden in the Trailer for 'Citizenfour'

The first trailer for Citizenfour is only ninety seconds long, but pay attention: Laura Poitras’ documentary about national security could end up being one of the year’s most important films. Citizenfour, which premiered on Friday at the New York Film Festival, chronicles the controversial actions of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who released classified government documents in May 2013. Poitras, who made the Oscar-nominated Iraq War documentary My Country, My Country and the Guantanamo documentary The Oath, was one of the two journalists to whom Snowden entrusted the information (the other being Glenn Greenwald).

A scene from their historic first meeting with Snowden can be seen towards the end of the trailer — “My name is Edward Snowden. I go by Ed,” he says, when they finally ask his real name. The teaser opens with a voiceover reading excerpts of Snowden’s initial emails. “I hope you understand that contacting you is extremely high-risk,” Snowden wrote to Poitras under his alias, Citizenfour. “From now, know that every border you cross, every purchase you make, every call you dial, every cell phone tower you pass, friend you keep, site you visit, and subject line you type, is in the hands of a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not.” The remainder of the film tracks the fallout from Snowden’s revelations, including scenes of his current life in hiding. (He has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia.)

Poitras moved from the United States to Berlin to make Citizenfour, out of concern that the FBI would interfere with the film’s completion. Poitras, Greenwald, and members of Snowden’s family attended the premiere in New York on Friday. Afterwards at a press conference, Greenwald said, "So much has been said about Edward Snowden: a lot of it bad, but a lot of it really good. I felt like this was really the first time that people could see who he really is in an unmediated way." The movie, co-produced by Steven Soderbergh, opens on Oct. 24.