The international film premiere took place on October 10, 2014, in the United States at the New York Film Festival. In Europe, the documentary was shown for the first time on October 17 at the BFI London Film Festival. The first showing in Germany was on October 27 as part of the Leipzig Film Festival. The director Laura Poitras was present in Hamburg at the Abaton cinema for a preview on November 4–5 and at the official German premiere at the Kino International. Its widest release as of January 22, 2015, was 105 theaters, in the weekend of December 12–18, 2014.[31]
It premiered on Home Box Office on February 23, 2015, the day after the 87th Academy Awards[32] and was subsequently released for streaming on HBO Go.[33] Channel 4 broadcast it in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2015[34] and has released it for view-on-demand through March 4, 2015.[35]
