Discussion Guide
Here’s what the critics are saying about Standard Operating Procedure “Haunting and troubling. Standard Operating Procedure’s subject matter, matter, and what it says about the war in Iraq, is eye-opening. It may be the most disturbing lm you’ll see in a long time.” time.” Claudia Puig, USA Today
“Harrowing and haunting. haunting.”” Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
“Morris orces us to ask ourselves what we would have done in their position, whether or not we like the answer. answer.”” Christy Lemire, Associated Press
“Four stars (out o our). You You probably won’t nd a more illuminating account a ccount o what happened within the walls o Abu Ghraib.” Raer Guzman, New York Newsday
“Morris mixes piercing pi ercing sit-downs with disturbing evidence. evidence.”” Joe Neumaier Neuma ier,, New York Daily News New s
“See Standard Operating Procedure. Riveting. Riveting.”” David Edelstein, New York Magazine
“Indisputably an impressive piece o documentary lmmaking.” Dana Stevens, Slate
“This lm..(has).. Morris’ estimable style, grace and control. From the very rst moment, as the music starts and the images o Iraq begin, we eel as i we’re being led someplace.” Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
“As a human document o what people are capable o in wartime, it’s indispensable.” indispensable.” Peter Rainer, Christian Christian Science Monitor M onitor
“These days there’s a food o documentaries examining the U.S. military operations that ollowed 9/11 in the name o a so-called War on Terror. Terror. I you see only one, make it Standard Operating Procedure.” Procedure.” Natasha Desianto, Campus Circle Review
Thank you or participating in a “Movie and a Conversation” or Standard Operating Procedure . Enclosed in this packet is everything you will need or your discussion as well as opportunities to take action. Please be sure to return the web survey so we are able to contact you or a special conerence call with the lm’s director, director, Errol Morris, in June. June. Here is a message rom Errol:
Dear Activist, My movie Standard Operating Procedure and the book with the same title (written with Philip Gourevitch) is the result o over two two years o investigation. I have amassed over a million and a hal words o interview transcripts, tens o thousands o pages o unredacted reports and thousands o photographs. The story o Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in mystery. mystery. There have been thirteen separate military and civil investigations, but no one knows what really happened. We think we know what happened there because o the photographs and the investigations, but both have only served to obuscate the truth rather than reveal it. The Abu Ghraib photographs, themselves, serve as both an exposé and a cover-up. cover-up. An exposé, because the photographs oer us a glimpse o the horror o Abu Ghraib; a cover-up because they convinced journalists and readers they had seen everything , that there was no need to look beyond the photographs and the seven so-called “Bad Apples.” Apples.” We know about the scapegoats but not about the real perpetrators. Four years ater the scandal, an unanswered question remains: how could American values become so compromised that Abu Ghraib—and the the subsequent cover-up—could cover-up—could happen? How did clear clear violations o the Geneva Conventions and many other international treaties and covenants become Standard Operating Procedure or the U.S. Military? I encourage you to visit TakePart.com/SOP to learn about how, through human rights organizations, the investigation is being continued, and how you can can become involved in making a dierence. In the uture, Participant Media and I hope to make all o the results o these investigations available on the web to the public at large. We believe there are things that the public does not know about––that about––that they need to know about––and we would like you to play a role in helping us to make this possible. Thank you very much. Errol Morris
Standard Operating Procedure “Movie and a Conversation” How to Start the Conversation When you host a “Movie and a Conversation” you help to make a dierence by starting a dialogue about an important issue none o us can aord to ignore. ignore. Human rights violations are an aront to our society, society, but nothing can change i we don’t take part. Here are tips to help you organize your event: •
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Find a local theater and showtime o the flm at TakePart.com/ SOP. SOP. Choose a location or your post-movie conversation – your home, home , a coee shop, a local community center or any good gathering place. Invite your riends, amily, house o worship and work colleagues to see the flm and join you or a post-movie conversation. Use the enclosed suggested questions and discussion topics to guide your conversation. Once your conversation has taken place, please fll out our brie survey. Click here to fll it out at Survey.TakePart.com . Upon receipt o your survey, we will send you the date, time and call-in inormation or a special conerence call with Errol Morris.
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Take action with the organizations involved in our campaign.
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Join our network at TakePart.com /SOP /SOP..
If you have any questions, please contact us at
[email protected]
Theatrical Information April 25, 2008 New York
May 2, 2008 Los Angeles
Boston
Chicago
May 9, 2008 San Francisco
San Diego
May 16, 2008 Seattle
Philadelphia
Milwaukee
May 23, 2008 Washington, DC Minneapolis
Dallas Portland Denver
Houston St. Louis
May 30, 2008
Atlanta
June 6, 2008 Tucson
Miami
Indianapolis
Baltimore
Columbus
Richmond
June 13, 2008 Charlotte
Albuquerque
Las Vega Vegas s
Reno
Opening Nationwide This Summer. Visit TakePart.com Visit TakePart.com /SOP for more details.
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Suggested Questions Below are some suggested questions to guide your post-flm discussion. 1.
What is the role o the photographs in the Abu Ghraib scandal?
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From watching the flm, what do you think the consequences o using torture were or the soldiers involved?
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How do you think the t he victims at Abu Ghraib were aected by the torture and abuse they experienced at the prison?
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Were you surprised that the Army investigator said that Were t hat it was standard operating procedure – and not a crime – to orce “Gilligan” to stand on a box with wires attached to him? Do you believe that this practice ought to be considered a crime?
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How do you think the t he victims at Abu Ghraib were aected by the torture and abuse they experienced at the prison?
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Were Wer e the punishments appropriate or the crimes at Abu Ghraib?
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A Deense Department investigating committee suggested that while the abuses at Abu Ghraib were inexcusable, but t hat they were only conducted by a small number o the soldiers stationed there. Do you think that these sorts o abuses were widespread widespread at Abu Ghraib or only restricted to the wing covered in the flm?
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Do you think that General Sanchez – the General who is said to have poked a Colonel in charge o military intelligence repeatedly in the chest – is partly to blame or what happened at Abu Ghraib? What could he have, or should he have, done dierently?
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Do you believe that the extreme techniques depicted in the photos could ever be useul in extracting intelligence?
10. What responsibility do we, as U.S. citizens, have or what occurred at Abu Ghraib? Survey.TakePart.com.. Thank You. Please remember to fll out our survey, available at: Survey.TakePart.com You.
Get In volved volved and Tak e Action at TakePart.com at TakePart.com /SOP Explore How Photography Phot ography Tells Tells Us the Truth—Or Truth—Or Not Renowned photographer Nubar Alexanian, who has covered all o Errol Morris’ lm sets since 1992, was given unprecedented access to the set o Standard Operating Procedure . The result: an exhibition o photos that is touring around the country. Preview a selection o photos online and attend the ull exhibit in a city near you.
Be a Witness Abu Ghraib was under investigation or our months beore photos taken by soldiers at the prison were published. It wasn’t until these shocking images became public that there was an international outcry over the atrocities taking place there. This speaks to the power o photography to shine a light on an issue and galvanize people to take action. WITNESS actively works to expose issues through the power o video. Learn more at Witness.org Witness.org about current video campaigns working to bring an end to torture and other human rights abuses around the world.
Take a Stand For Human Rights Celebrate 60 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Help The Elders Reach Their Goal of One Billion Signatures It’s time or a global conversation conversatio n about human rights. It’s time to consider consid er the values that unite us as one human h uman amily. And now, or the very rst time, citizens o the world can sign the Universal Declaration o Human Rights (UDHR), a document that calls or reedom, saety, saety, and personal and political rights or everyone around the world. For the last 60 years only governments were asked to sign the Declaration. Now, you can join The Elders, an international organization comprised o Nobel Peace Laureates and other world leaders in their “Every Human Has Rights” campaign, launched to commemorate the 60th anniversary o the UDHR. The organization is led by Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter. Their goal is to get one billion signatures.
Sign the historical Declaration today and celebrate the basic principles o justice, equality and rights or all humanity humanit y.
Take a Stand Against the Use of Torture Because recent bipartisan legislation requiring the CIA to ollow the Department o Deense Field Manual was recently vetoed by President Bush, the country is waiting or new legislation. Until new legislation is presented, you can tell candidates running or President and party ocials that you demand that anti-torture language be included in their platorms.
Watch the Experts Discuss the Political Realities o Torture See highlights of a panel discussion eaturing international human rights activists at the Berlin Film Festival—Diplomacy in the Age o Terr Terror: or: The Impact o Diminished Rule o Law on Interna tional Relations. The panel discussed the consequences o alleged U.S. violations o the Geneva Conventions and strategies or moving orward.
Get involved and learn more Visit the organizations listed below to fnd out more about these issues and learn how you can get involved at TakePart.com/SOP. Amnesty International USA Amnesty International is a group o people rom across the world standing up or humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect people wherever justice, reedom, truth and dignity are denied. We investigate and expose abuses, educate and mobilize the public, and help transorm societies to create a saer, saer, more just world. We received the Nobel Peace Prize or our lie-saving work.
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a national, non-partisan litigation, lobbying, and public education organization with more than 550,000 members and 53 aliates. For more than 80 years the ACLU has been our nation’ nation’s s guardian o liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to deend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws o the United States guarantee everyone in this country. country.
Bellevue/NYU Program or Survivors o Torture The Bellevue/NYU Program or Survivors o Torture provides comprehensive medical and mental health care, as well as social and legal services to survivors o torture and war traumas and their amily members. In the past year alone, the the program provided these multidisciplinary multidisciplinary services to more than 500 men, women and children rom 70 7 0 countries.
Bill o Rights Deense Committee The Bill o Rights Deense Committee is a national organization guided by the Bill o Rights, which were adopted to limit the power o the state over individuals and to preserve basic human and individual rights or every person under U.S. jurisdiction or control, even in times o war or other national crises, and regardless o who holds elected power. power. BORDC works with grassroots groups and individuals individuals who are organizing locally to eect change nationally in restoring the ull promise o the Bill o Rights.
Center or American Progress The Center or American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and ree America that ensures opportunity or all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies refect these values. We work to nd progressive and pragmatic solutions to signicant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that oster a government that is “o the people, by the people, and or the people.”
Human Rights First Human Rights First is a nonpartisan, international human rights organization based in New York City. The organization began in 1978 as the Lawyers Committee or Human Rights and changed its name in 2004. Since the revelations o abuse suraced around Abu Ghraib, Human Rights First has been working to investigate detainee abuse, hold accountable those who are responsible, and put in place legislation that makes it clear that torture is illegal.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch works in over eighty countries, addressing the human rights practices o governments o all political stripes, regardless o ethnic or religious persuasion. It deends reedom o thought and expression, due process, and equal protection o the law and a vigorous civil society. society. Human Rights Watch is widely respected or timely and accurate investigations and research, or documenting and denouncing murders, disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonments, discrimination and other human rights abuses.
Physicians or Human Rights PHR’s Campaign Against Torture seeks to restore the U.S. commitment against torture, to ensure humane treatment o detainees by ending e nding interrogation policies that include psychological and physical torture, and to protect U.S. health personnel rom complicity in mistreatment and harm. Physicians or Human Rights mobilizes health proessionals to advance health, dignity and justice by promoting human rights. PHR shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
WITNESS WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes o the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transorm personal stories o abuse into powerul tools or justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.
