Back in January, Bill in Portland Maine threw out a cheer to catch the movie Taxi to the Dark Side which had opened in theaters. This movie examines the death of that Afghani taxi driver in 2002 at Bagram air base.
Well, ThinkProgress is informing us that HBO plans to air this movie in September. Let's discuss it's impact on the election on the flip...
So here's the abstract for the film:
Taxi to the Darkside, the latest prize-winning documentary from Oscar-nominee Alex Gibney, confirms his standing as one of the foremost non-fiction filmmakers working today. A stunning inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002, the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth. Intermingling documents and records of the incident with candid testimony from eyewitnesses and participants, the film uncovers an inescapable link between the tragic incidents that unfolded in Bagram and the policies made at the very highest level of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Combining the cool detachment of a forensic expert with the heated indignation of a proud American who holds his country to a high standard, Gibney’s film reveals how the Bush administration has systematically betrayed the very ideals it professes to uphold. (THINKFilm)
Apparently, the Discovery Channel had a contract to broadcast this prior to the election, but broke out of the deal because they apparently feared it would impact Discovery's upcoming IPO. So HBO has picked it up. They'll show it in September on their subscriber channel and then release it to basic cable in 2009.
I did not catch the movie in theaters, so I have no first-hand knowledge of how powerful it is, but it certainly can't show the current administration's torture policies and procedures in a good light.
While I'd certainly like to see this available to a wider audience before the election, it really should have the potential to help us in the election. Given McCain's recent vote against requiring intelligence agencies to abide by the army field manual, it should be possible to make considerable hay just before the election on the torture issue.
What say you?