Standard Operating Procedure

Documentary auteur Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) has spent two years researching events surrounding those notorious photographs from Abu Ghraib, vile digital mementos of American soldiers humiliating prisoners that seem likely to stink up the world for generations to come.

There are long, intimate interviews with most of the perpetrators, and though Morris never exonerates them, he makes it clear that they have been scapegoated. Ever the epistemologist, his ultimate concern is with what the images mean. What were these people intending when they took these photos, or when they gave the camera the thumbs up? Who was supposed to see them? How much do they tell the rest of us about what was actually going on in Abu Ghraib? And how much don't they? [Source: NZFF08]

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