Snowden the Movie: The Force of Trajectory that Can Not Be Classified

Shailene Woodley and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Snowden the movie. The real-life ongoing protests to halt Dakota Access Pipeline by those gathered at the Standing Rock camp. The real-life Shailene Woodley at the DAPL protest in D.C. Snowden.

Snowden the Movie: Familiar Faces on the Big Screen Reveal the Force of Trajectory -- the Peace that Results from Truth Telling

By Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News

The movie Snowden held a few surprises. Here, I saw the faces of friends.
There she was, Shailene Woodley, the face that I had been seeing as I posted photos of the Standing Rock runners during their run to Washington, as they battled the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

There she was, in the movie, Snowden's girlfriend, at the real-life age of 24.
Then there were the faces of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, and Bolivia President Evo Morales. Many of us were with these leaders at the gatherings at the Mother Earth Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and again at the United Nations Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico. 

Finally, there was Snowden himself, who at the age of 29 felt he had no choice but to do the right thing. He changed the world as we know it, as we now know that it always was.

Among the great gifts of this film is a clear vision of the kill button, and how easy it is for someone seated at a computer to carelessly push a button and use a drone to kill on the other side of the world. This includes women and children who happen to be near a certain cell phone. It is a reckless disregard for human life.

It is one of the facts that President Obama's public relations people, and the complicit media, keep out of the news in the U.S. for the most part.

Computers, Snowden says, are his sin of choice. Computers, too, have become the sin of choice for those who assassinate women and children carelessly. There is no way to know who really has that cellphone, on the day the kill button is punched by someone seated before a computer, between their morning coffee and their lunch hour.

The Trajectory

Snowden said he was moved forward by a trajectory, a propelling force beyond himself.

It must be a similar trajectory that moves forward the Dakotas, Lakotas, and Nakotas at Standing Rock, and the force that they can not deny, can not turn back from. It is this trajectory that carried the young Native American runners to the White House. It is this trajectory that led Native Americans and their supporters to lock down to Dakota Access Pipeline machinery as the movie Snowden opened in theaters.

What price is paid for freedom and truth? This is the question that the movie Snowden leaves one with.

In the movie, Snowden gained a sense of peace, or at least acceptance of his fate. He had moved forward with that trajectory, that force when he was called to do so.
The force of trajectory is present in the words of Red Warrior Camp, as they fight the Dakota Access Pipeline. This oil pipeline now targets the Missouri River and could poison the water source of Native Americans, and millions of others, for future generations.

On the day when Crazy Horse was assassinated 139 years ago, on Sept. 5, 1877, Red Warrior Camp, at Standing Rock Camp, wrote, "Our spirits are lit afire and nothing can stop us. Warriors, brothers and sisters, we may never receive an opportunity like this to send a powerful message to the world. The world is in need of healing. The battlefield has changed, and the theatre has evolved thus we cannot be armed, we cannot succumb to their psychological ploys to incite our violence. We must stay strong. Do not back down. Crazy Horse lives."

President Evo Morales grounded in Austria.

Because of Snowden, we know that every phone call, every e-mail, and every chat, is saved and searchable by the U.S. government.

It is warrantless spying of U.S. citizens and used globally by the U.S. to gain business and government secrets of countries around the world, in the pursuit of global domination and control.

After releasing those files, Snowden attempted to reach Ecuador. President Morales' plane was forced to land in Austria because he was believed to be transporting Snowden to South America.

In the end, Snowden never made it to Ecuador. The U.S. revoked his visa, leaving him in limbo in Russia, where he remains.

And as I left that theater, I felt that peace that I hope Snowden too had finally felt. I looked out at an open sky and a sunset full of colors that Snowden may never see again.

In realizing how much Snowden was moved to give up, to sacrifice for truth and justice, and his acceptance of it, I too found a new sense of peace and freedom.


Brenda Norrell is the publisher of Censored News. It was created in 2006 after she was censored, then terminated, as a staff writer for Indian Country Today. She has been a news reporter in Indian country for 34 years, beginning at Navajo Times, and as a stringer for AP and USA Today during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She has been censored by the mainstream media since 2006.


Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Content may not be used without written permission. Content may not be used for advertising or any commercial or revenue-producing purpose.