"Enhanced Interrogation" (aka Torture) After Bin Laden: "Memos and Testimonies from the 'War on Terror'

Director Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs Smith; Bourne Identity; Jumper) will direct a performance on Tuesday, May 24 at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater that will use readings, performances, theater, documentary and other forms to provide what promises to be a powerful and penetrating analysis and interpretation of the impact of the post-9/11 "enhanced interrogation techniques" (AKA torture) program on both the humans who are subject to it and the humans who impose it.


Writers Russell Banks, Dahlia Lithwick, Peter Godwin, Rula Jebreal, Beth Gutcheon, Kati Marton, John Buffalo Mailer; Actors Dianne Wiest, Hayden Christensen, Aasif Manvi, Lili Taylor, Rachel Bilson, and other internationally acclaimed writers and artists will join former Guantánamo prosecutor Col. Morris Davis and former CIA interrogator Jack Rice to read from the detailed reports of numerous prisoners, government memos authorizing abusive techniques, and other documents detailing the scope and disastrous human cost of the U.S. torture program. Original videos of former Guantánamo detainees.  The event, which follows a similar event Liman, the ACLU, and PEN presented at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, is being filmed as part of a national documentary film project aimed at promoting accountability for torture.

Doug Liman: “By enlisting both influential cultural figures and ordinary Americans from all walks of life around the country to read these documents in public spaces, the Reckoning project sends the powerful message that accountability is not a political but a human question, one that bears on our national character."

“As the documents we are presenting make clear," Mr. Liman continues, "there is no longer any doubt that the United States repeatedly and systematically violated longstanding prohibitions on torture. It is also clear from the record, as we hear throughout this program, that many courageous men and women stood up against torture and abuse. We’re at a pivotal moment in history, and my hope is that America will honor these men and women and choose a path toward restoring this nation as a defender of human rights.”

DITHOB: Following the recent killing of Bin Laden, and the suggestions that these same physically and psychologically abusive interrogation techniques contributed to the gathering of intelligence that resulted in his location and killing, consideration of the impact of torture and enhanced interrogation on the soul of democracies seems more urgent than ever. In this era of terror, where do pragmatism and ethics meet?

For ticket information:

WHEN: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
West 65th Street, upper level, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10023

TICKETS: $12 general public; $9 students; $8 seniors; $7 ACLU/PEN/FSLC members

More information and tickets: here

For more information, please visit PEN (Poets Essayists and Novelists) or American Civil Liberties Union