Last night, I went to a special screening of Ghosts of Abu Grahib, a new documentary that exposes the abuse and torture of detainees at the notorious Abu Grahib prison in Iraq.  The film makes the argument that, unlike what the military spin team would like us to think, the abuse was not caused by “a few bad apples” in the mix.  Rather, “extreme” interrogation methods—a.k.a. torture—was sanctioned and ordered by the highest officials, leading back to the Secretary of Defense and the White House.

Ghosts of Abu Grahib was compelling because it interviewed almost all of the soliders who were indicted and convicted of abusing the detainees at Abu Grahib.  These soldiers were almost all low-ranking and young, who made the claim that in fact they were following orders in the chain of command.  The only high-ranking official to be convicted was Col. Janis Karpinski, who has since become a crusader for the treatment of female soldiers in the military (as was mentioned in the excellent Salon expose last week).  The only offender who was not interviewed was Charles Graner, the supposed instigator of the majority of the violence—who was sentenced to 10 years in prison (the others received sentences between 6 months and 1 year for their participation).

Filmmaker Rory Kennedy opens the documentary with footage from the infamous experiment conducted in the 1960s, “Obedience.”  In this experiment, participants were overwhelmingly likely to cause physical pain to a subject if they were ordered to do so by a superior.  In closing, Kennedy says that as we have seen in the past, human “empathy” alone is not enough to ensure that abuse does not occur.

I wanted to give everyone a heads-up and a STRONG encouragement to watch Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes tonight.  The documentary is making its TV premiere on the PBS Independent Lens series.  You can find what time it's on in your area here.

For those who aren't familiar with the documentary, Byron Hurt, a self-professed hip-hop head, explores the themes of hyper-masculinity, homophobia, misogyny and materialism in hip-hop music and culture as it exists today.  In my opinion, Mr. Hurt challenges the viewer, the listener and the consumer to critically analyze the intersections of creativity with capitalism, manifesting in some of the destructive/oppressive overtones of commercialized hip-hop today.

I have had the opportunity to watch this film twice now, and in the way I believe it was meant to be seen--once during a free screening organized by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (where the director and Toni Blackman, one of the emcees featured in the film, appeared on a panel) in Bedstuy, and once during a meeting of a radical artists' collective I am a part of here in NYC.  I know that Campus Progress had a glitzy event in L.A. recently, with a screening and a star-studded panel discussion, which is wonderful--but I think Mr. Hurt's intention was to spark discussion in the community on a much more grounded level, beginning with people talking about these issues in their living rooms and in basements of community centers (if you want to hold a screening for your school or organization, go here).  But in the end, it's just important that people see it.  I hope you all will tonight.