A number of us went to a screening of Errol Morris‘s new new film about Abu Ghraib last night, S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure. Morris turned his interrotron on the perpetrators of the Abu Ghraib mess and mixed those interviews with photographs, videos, and re-enactments of the abuse. This was a rough cut, more than 2 hours long, and the first time anyone — including people who worked with Morris — got to see it in its entirety. We haven’t been able to stop talking about it. Morris would be a natural for tonight’s show on Re-Imaging Violence. Chris just got off the phone with him. He can’t do it, but he said The Times just called to ask him to write an op-ed on Interpreting Pictures. Maybe we’re on to something here.
Saturday February 11 2012
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I was there as well…standing for the two hours – contentedly. I was actually next to Morris some of the time. He was walking around anxiously and I could feel him looking at me – and others for reactions. I put my fingers on my chin contemplatively and stared seriously at the screen.
Howabout that last question asked of Morris, about the pictures. whether he was as guilty in a way of exploiting. He said something like – I guess you’ll have to decide who is the sickest…them or I.
Please bring Morris on soon! His Macnamara film was wondeerful.
Interpreting pictures. I gotta say, the most important images I walked away with the other night, came not from “pictures,” but from my imagination.
And I give all the credit to Mr. Morris; I believe this was his intent. Those “intelligence†agents beat that guy…till he was a corpse. It was demonic.
It’s like Morris made this whole film as a kind of barometer – if you think this is bad, think about what you don’t not seeing!
How is it possibe to read what you wrote three time before you hit submit, and still screw up the words?
“think about what your not seeing”
We’re hoping to get Morris on soon. Until we do, check out the show we did with him nearly two years ago.