On Sunday, Glenn Greenwald reported that Laura Poitras – the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker behind "My Country, My Country" and "The Oath" – has been subject to extraordinary and deeply troubling scrutiny by American officials. Poitras has been detained by the U.S. government 36 times in the last six years – almost every time she’s returned to the country from work abroad. The filmmaker has repeatedly been subject to harassment, intimidation and unwarranted, invasive searches, while her phone, laptop, reporter’s notebook and other materials have been confiscated and copied. Last week, she was prohibited from taking notes on her own interrogation because her pen “could be used as a weapon."

As Greenwald pointed out, Poitras' case is a glaring example of the government’s continued disregard of Fourth Amendment rights as they apply to journalists and documentary filmmakers working on subject matter related to U.S. military operations, American foreign policy and any other domain claimed by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Now, nonfiction filmmakers are speaking out. Yesterday, the Cinema Eye organization released an open letter and petition in protest of DHS actions, calling on the Obama administration to investigate this “chronic abuse of power” and to put an end to violations of “America’s bedrock principle of a free press.” The letter was signed by the Cinema Eye Executive Board and their Filmmaker Advisory Board, including well-known nonfiction filmmakers Alex Gibney, Albert Maysles, Morgan Spurlock and many others. The full letter is reproduced below: