Published: November 07, 2009
Guantanamo Film Based on Interviews With Former Prisoners and Their Lawyers
US Film Premiere with Director/Author Andy Worthington: OUTSIDE THE LAW: STORIES FROM GUANTANAMO
"Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo" (74 minutes) is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and inspired by Worthington's well-reviewed book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison (Pluto Press).
Andy Worthington will appear at a November 10 screening of the film, with Q and A following.
DATE/TIME: Tuesday, November 10, 7:00 PM
LOCATION: North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst Ave (at Martin Luther King Jr Way)
HOST: World Can't Wait, SF Bay Area chapter
The film tells the Guantánamo/torture story with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan, often for bounty payments, and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with
militancy or terrorism.
The film is based on interviews with former prisoners and their lawyers (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances by Guantánamo's former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg (a London-based imam), and British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.
Focusing on the stories of three particular prisoners - Shaker Aamer (who is still held), Binyam Mohamed (released in February 2009) and Omar Deghayes - "Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo" provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds "the worst of the worst" and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as "illegal enemy combatants" with no rights whatsoever.
British journalist Andy Worthington (www.andyworthington.co.uk) is the author of three books and an advisor to War Criminals Watch. He is available to the press for interviews; Mr. Worthington can comment not only on the film but on current breaking news in the story of America's torture program.
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