Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America’s image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few “bad apples”? We set out to examine the context of these photographs. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? We talked directly to the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs. Who are these people? What were they thinking?
Over two years of investigation, we amassed a million and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted reports, and hundreds of photographs. The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in moral ambiguity, but it is clear what happened there. The Abu Ghraib photographs serve as both an expose and a coverup. An expose, because the photographs offer us a glimpse of the horror of Abu Ghraib; and a coverup because they convinced journalists and readers they had seen everything, that there was no need to look further. In recent news reports, we have learned about the destruction of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation tapes. A coverup. It has been front page news. But the coverup at Abu Ghraib involved thousands of prisoners and hundreds of soldiers. We are still learning about the extent of it.
Many journalists have asked about “the smoking gun” of Abu Ghraib. It is the wrong question.
As Philip Gourevitch has commented, Abu Ghraib is the smoking gun. The underlying question that we still have not resolved, four years after the scandal: how could American values become so compromised that Abu Ghraib -- and the subsequent coverup -- could happen?
From the archive:
According to one who was present, Churchill suddenly blurted out: "Are we animals? Are we taking this too far?"
From earlier this month, President Bush:
Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists.
Unfortunately, Congress recently sent me an intelligence authorization bill that would diminish these vital tools. So today, I vetoed it.
DARKON is a feature documentary that follows the real-life adventures of an unusual group of weekend "warrior knights," fantasy role-playing gamers whose live action "battleground" is modern-day Baltimore, Maryland, re-imagined as a make-believe medieval world named Darkon. These live action gamers combine the physical drama of historical re-enactments with character-driven storylines inspired in part by such perennial favorite fantasy epics like the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and the saga of Conan the Barbarian. As role players, they create alter-egos with rich emotional, psychological, and social lives. They costume themselves and physically act out their characters exploits both in intimate court intrigue and campouts and in panoramic battle scenarios involving competitive strategies, convincingly real props, and full contact "combat." Because real life so often gets in the way, it's easy to understand these players motivations.
With a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, King of Kong is a must-see film. Critics call it "improbably compelling, stupendously and wildly entertaining, madly arresting, hilarious and moving, taught, tense, fascinating, rousing, and laugh-out-loud funny."
As Decius said, it's pretty much about how everything everywhere actually works. I saw this on the festival circuit earlier this year; it won the best documentary award at IFF Boston.
Mitchell, 37, says he only counts his scores if they're played in a public venue, and he won't say if he can beat his cross-country competitor. He'll only say that he's planning something big and unprecedented in response to Wiebe's win.
If there's one thing to know about Billy Mitchell, it's that he does not disappoint.
American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980 - 1986
Topic: Documentary
10:33 pm EDT, Aug 10, 2006
Coming soon to a theater near you.
Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.
Don't give me "The Clash" and claim you're punk. We're talking hardcore, right here!
This documentary won the Grand Jury prize for best documentary at Sundance. If you live in LA, NY, or Boston, go see it now; otherwise, you'll have to wait for it to be released on DVD.
Why We Fight, the new film by Eugene Jarecki, is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a who's who of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, Why We Fight launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise fo the American Empire.
Speaking with the BBC about a source in the documentary, director Eugene Jarecki says, "Is she right? I don’t really look for that. I look for people who say things that are arresting, who you may not necessarily agree with, but who you also can't just dismiss."
Manohla Dargis called it "agitprop entertainment." She also says "Everyone sounds smart, if not always convincing." But the best part of her review is this:
The idea is that because the public buys the lies, it also buys the wars. Too bad this doesn't explain why people buy lies, including the obvious ones.
I heard a good chunk of this in the car today. It was one of those sitting-in-the-parking-lot moments where you just can't turn off the radio. You may want to start out with part 1, instead.
In January, 2002, the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, spoke at Georgetown University. There he urged Afghan-Americans, especially young ones, to move back to Afghanistan.
It's possible that the very first teenager to heed his invitation was Hyder Akbar, seventeen, from Concord, California. In the summer of 2002, he travelled with his father to live in their home country.
As luck would have it, he met a radio producer named Susan Burton before he left, and she gave him a tape recorder to take along. This show is devoted to his extraordinary recordings.
"The Aristocrats" is -- how shall I put it? -- an essay film, a work of painstaking and penetrating scholarship, and, as such, one of the most original and rigorous pieces of criticism in any medium I have encountered in quite some time.
Perhaps I should add that "The Aristocrats" is also possibly the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene documentary ever made.
Digital technology has made filmmaking so cheap and easy that now almost anyone can point a camera at a difficult father or a wicked stepmother and call it a movie. And more of them are making it into theaters.
