In this excerpt from the Independent Lens film National Bird, former U.S. military drone pilot Lisa talks about working on the DGS (distributed ground system), which spans the globe, eating personal data and contributing to decisions that led to drone strikes from anywhere, anytime. “I thought I was going to be on the right side of history and today I don’t believe I was,” she says, over aerial footage of an American suburban neighborhood. “It’s like borders don’t matter anymore, and there is a huge system that spans the globe that can just suck up endless amounts of your life, your personal data. It’s a secret program and what that means is that I can’t just go shouting off the hilltops, telling the public what it is. What I can tell you is that to me, one person who worked within this massive thing, it’s frightening.”
Premiering Monday, May 1, 2017. Check local listings:
