Tuesday, March 1, 2011

short documentary viewing of Justice Denied: Voices from Guanta'namo

    This documentary was chosen due to my interest in how our goverment could and did detain hundreds of people for years after 9/11 without ever charging them with a crime.  The director uses straitforward interviews with five of the men who were held anywhere from two to five years and never charged with a crime. Mouzzam Begg was a British resident working in Afghanastan building a school when he was taken and held for three years, Omar Deshayes had gone to Pakastan to study the legal system there when he was abducted and held for five years. Ruahal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul were born and raised together in England and were taken to Guanta'namo for two and a half years.   These men were never brought up on any charges but were just taken and held as possible terrorists just because of there muslim background.  The direct interview process with some narration is an excellent form of delivery for a documentary.  The viewer can recieve the information directly from the source.  The director still has many ways to steer this type of approach but in the end it is the subjects that the documentaries are about that shine and help to share their own story.  I already had a small interest in this subject, but beginning to see the way it affected these men for the rest of their lives needs to be seen.  All of the men interviewed stated that the one thing their kidnappers could not take from them was their strong religious beliefs, so that is what they held on to.  They always had a belief that America were the good guys like in the movies, now that concept is shattered.  Are we as a country stopping terrorism or helping breed it?