Countdown to Sundance 2007 Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

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http://www.docsthatinspire.com/?p=29


Countdown to Sundance 2007 Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Director Rory Kennedy

Rory Kennedy’s new documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib seeks to reignite the conversation about what happened at the prison where the infamous photographs of Americans torturing Iraqis were taken. Using new first-hand accounts from the perpetrators, witnesses and victims, the film not only tries to understand how young American men and women could commit such heinous acts of violence, but ultimately asks—do we want to be a nation that tortures?

While Ghosts of Abu Ghraib is not a film that focuses on hope, I feel it’s important to bring attention to a film that does the difficult work of helping us face our collective shadow. In addition, Kennedy’s lifelong devotion to using film as a catalyst for social change is an inspiration to anyone who wants to make a social impact. Her award-winning films have explored such varied subjects as poverty, drug addiction, the global AIDS crisis, human rights and domestic abuse. She is the co-founder of Moxie Firecracker Films with Liz Garbus.

In this audio interview, Kennedy shares her thoughts about how after Abu Ghraib, America as a nation—and as a people—lost its moral standing in the world, and what she thinks we might do as individuals and as a nation to address that. Kennedy also shares with me her disturbing discovery that 95% of what what appears in the Abu Ghraib photographs was authorized by people up the chain of command.

Highlights from the Podcast:

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Rory Kennedy will be speaking on the panel How “Movies That Matter” Can Matter on January 22 at 2:30 pm at the Prospector Square Theatre. The panel will explore the juncture between film and social change and will feature Judith Helfand (activist, educator and co-director, Everything’s Cool, Eric Schlosser (journalist, author, Fast Food Nation), Gayle Smith (senior fellow at the Center for American Progress), Brian Steidle (photographer and subject of the doc The Devil Came on Horseback), and Diane Weyermann (Executive Vice President of Documentary Production, Participant Productions). Ticket Required.

Click the blue arrow to start (or pause) the podcast.
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