Torture Sans Porn
With today's announcement from the Obama administration denying the release of any torture photographs taken during the Bush Adminstration (I hope to god there was nothing to photograph during the last 100 and some days), it seems to me that it is up to filmmakers to make sure Americans face their role as the purveyors of torture policy. The news media seems unwilling to push the issue with some notable exceptions, including Andrew Sullivan who cuts through the daily noise of the 24 hour news cycle to continuously pursue the issue. People need to be held accountable. And by "people" I do mean me, you, the person sitting outside your office or next to you or who you buy a drink from later tonight. As Michael Kinsley recently put it, "Between April and November of [2004], there were dozens of articles about torture in general and waterboarding in particular in major print media outlets, on the Web and on TV, many describing it in detail and some straightforwardly labeling it as torture. Millions of people saw these reports, knew that torture was going on and voted for Bush anyway." Their is a collective guilt here, and it needs to be faced. Alex Gibney's incredible Oscar winning doc Taxi to the Dark Side was a good start. But it was just that a start. I hope more filmmakers - both documentary and narrative - put torture front and center and don't let us Americans continue to avoid responsibility.
1 Comment
KenJ | May 14, 2009
"...some straightforwardly labeling it as torture". Presumably, many more did not consider it torture. Like many others, I voted for Bush "anyway" and would again were he to run. he was not perfect, but he was better than what we have now.