Almost everyone who comes to this site has probably seen the ad for the Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (it is to the right as I write this), but I everyone who has HBO will watch it Feb 22nd or when it repeats many times through the end of March (it will be out on DVD in June for those who don't).
We've all read about Abu Ghraib and seen the photos, but this documentary puts it together with a stong narrative in a way that hasn't happened before.
I went to a screening of Ghosts last month sponsored by HBO and the World Affairs Council which was followed by a discussion between director Rory Kennedy and Mark Danner who wrote Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (some of the
essays from the book are online - scroll down to 2005 and 2004).
Some of the most compelling parts of the documentary are interviews with some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Kennedy said it wasn't easy to do the interviews. They originally were going to be interviewed in Jordan, but the men weren't allowed into the country. The same thing happened in Turkey, but they were able to convince the government to allow the interviews to take place. All of the men's identities are hidden except for one who insisted on showing his face despite the danger.
I wish Ghosts was being released in theaters. It will be powerful on television, but there is an even greater impact seeing it on a large screen with an audience.
But a documentary like this should have been done by CBS, ABC, or NBC. Yes, 60 Minutes broke the story along with the New Yorker, and the others have covered it. But the death of the long form documentary on the networks has left the full story untold.
Errol Morris is also working on a documentary on Abu Ghraib which focuses more on the photographs and the history of photography in war. He said in Chicago in November he hoped to complete it in time for Cannes and it should receive a theaterical release this fall or next year.
There also is an exhibit of Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib paintings at UC Berkeley through March 23rd. It will be at the American University Museum in DC from November 6th to December 30th. But the exhibit was refused first by many museums in the US. There is a book of the paintings.
There is a webcast (and mp3) of a conversation between Botero and Robert Haas as well as a later discussion of art and violence. There will be a panel on March 7th on Torture, Human Rights and Terrorism (which probably will be online).
Take action:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/...
http://hrw.org/...
http://www.aclu.org/...
http://www.witnesstorture.org
http://www.witness.org/...
Some interviews with Rory Kennedy
www.sf360.org/features/2007/02/rory_kennedy_an.html
www.indiewire.com/people/2007/01/park_city_07_in_13.html
www.kqed.org/epArchive/R702051000
www.docsthatinspire.com/?p=29