Verax is a five-minute 2013 short film about the Edward Snowden leaking event in Hong Kong. Produced by amateur filmmakers in Hong Kong, it was posted to YouTube in June 2013. The name of the film originates from Snowden's codename for himself, which means "truth teller" in Latin. It was produced by the group J.Shot Videos. According to the producers, this was the first film ever produced about Snowden.
Plot
The film has four parts. The first depicts Central Intelligence Agency employees discussing the Snowden case. The second involves a newspaper journalist corresponding with Snowden. The third involves Hong Kong police officers and Chinese Ministry of State Security employees discussing and trying to find Edward Snowden. The fourth involves the characters waiting for Snowden to appear, and when Snowden reveals himself in the media. The end of the film includes extracts of Snowden's interview with The Guardian. The final captions state that Snowden departed Hong Kong on 23 June. The film features The Mira, the Hong Kong hotel where Snowden stayed. A Rubik's cube, an item which, according to the Agence France-Presse, "Snowden reportedly used to identify himself to a Guardian journalist," is featured in the film. Marcus Tsui, one of the project's filmmakers, described the film as a "snapshot in time".
Andreas Wiseman of Screen Daily wrote that the plot uses "a large degree of creative licence".
Conception and motives
The film was created by expatriates from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United States. The producers of the film were Jeff Floro, Edwin Lee, Shawn Tse, and Marcus Tsui. Lee, an Irish citizen, and the sole professional filmmaker involved, served as the editor and cinematographer. Lee had served as a journalist in the multimedia and television sectors and had worked for the South China Morning Post and ATV Home. On 11 July 2013, two days after Snowden revealed his identity, Edwin Lee had contacted his friends on the possibility of making a film. Lee and Tsui created the film's script, and did so one day before shooting. The actors had no time to rehearse their lines.
According to the producers, the film was intended to be an homage to Hong Kong. Lee said "We were so intrigued as to why Snowden came to Hong Kong. All of us love Hong Kong to death; we all call Hong Kong home." The filmmakers, on the group YouTube page, stated "While nearly every media outlet wanted to get their hands on him, we decided to produce a short fiction video to depict his experience in HK, and how it would have affected certain parties. Namely, the CIA contingent based in HK who would be tasked to find Snowden. The Hong Kong police who would be stuck in between the U.S. and China, and the journalists who want to get the scoop." Lee said that the film was created "to catch onto the interest on Snowden and the attention on Hong Kong." According to Tse, a then 28-year-old native of Toronto, Ontario and a graduate of the York University film studies programme who worked as a teacher in Hong Kong, "We tried to give Hong Kong the limelight we think it deserves." Tse said that the group had initially considered an outright comedy, a spoof, or a thriller in the style of Jason Bourne; ultimately they opted for a depiction of the events that may have unfolded. Lee said that the Bourne film series and the works of director Michael Mann had inspired him.
In regards to Snowden's presence, the filmmakers stated that while Snowden is "a central character, he is not the most prominent. It is more about the maelstrom of events surrounding him." This was because they knew too little about Snowden himself to give him a more prominent role in the story. Lee said that the film focuses more on the "vignettes" than on Snowden and that Snowden serves as a catalyst for events that affect the other characters. Snowden himself has no live dialogue in the film. Lee said that half of the film's focus was on Hong Kong, and half was on Snowden.
The four filmmakers stated that they had no political motives. Shawn Tse said that "We knew right from the get-go that this film was going to be as neutral as possible and in a way try not to infringe upon basically what we thought Snowden was trying to do, because really we had no idea." Lee described the film as a "snapshot in time" and said that "When Snowden popped up in Hong Kong he got so much attention that it really got people talking. We wanted to give an alternative view on the situation, beyond the media chase for where he was and what he knew." Cassandra Chan, who served as the associate producer, said "The US government has abused the internet, so our response is to use the power of the internet, for hopefully good reasons."