Two Bradford International Film Festival Screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” March 26 and 27, 2011

“‘Outside the Law’ is a powerful film that has helped ensure that Guantánamo and the men unlawfully held there have not been forgotten.”
Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK

“[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy.”
Joe Burnham, Time Out

As featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout. Buy the DVD here.

I’m delighted to announce that the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington) has been chosen as part of the prestigious Bradford International Film Festival, which runs from March 16 to 27, 2011 (click on the link for the PDF of the full programme). The film will be screened on Saturday March 26, followed by a Q&A session with the directors, and with former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Deghayes (who is featured prominently in the film), and it will also be screened on Sunday March 27. Screening information is here, tickets (£6.75/£5 concs.) can be booked by calling Cineworld on 0871 200 2000, and see here for additional booking information.

This is the fourth film festival screening for “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” following screenings at the Human Rights, Human Wrongs Film Festival in Oslo last February, the London International Documentary Festival last April, and the D.C. Independent Film Festival in Washington D.C. on March 5 this year, and it is, I believe, a testament to the power of the film and to the ongoing significance of Guantánamo — and the plight of the men still held there — now that President Obama, capitulating to pressure from Republicans (and members of his own party), has abandoned all attempts to close the prison during the rest of his time in office, and, as a result, is presiding over a situation in which many of the 172 men still held can legitimately be regarded as political prisoners.

Full details of the screenings are as follows:

Saturday March 26, 6.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A with Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
Bradford International Film Festival, Cineworld, Bradford Leisure Exchange, Vicar Lane, Bradford, BD1 5LD.
This screening is part of the Bradford International Film Festival. Screening information is here, tickets (£6.75/£5 concs.) can be booked by calling Cineworld on 0871 200 2000, and see here for additional booking information.

Sunday March 27, 2 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.”
Bradford International Film Festival, Cineworld, Bradford Leisure Exchange, Vicar Lane, Bradford, BD1 5LD.
This screening is part of the Bradford International Film Festival. Screening information is here, tickets (£6.75/£5 concs.) can be booked by calling Cineworld on 0871 200 2000, and see here for additional booking information.

These dates are part of an ongoing UK tour of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” mainly featuring Andy Worthington as a speaker at Q&A sessions following screenings arranged by Amnesty International student groups. See “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” — UK Tour Dates 2011: The “Save Shaker Aamer” Tour for further information. This page will be updated regularly as new tour dates are added.

About the film

The film focuses on the stories of three prisoners — Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, who is still held, and Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes (both released) — and features interviews with former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes, lawyers Clive Stafford Smith and Tom Wilner, and journalist Andy Worthington, plus appearances from Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Imam Shakeel Begg, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

The purpose of the film is to raise awareness of the truth about Guantánamo, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons and torture, explaining how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, rounding up men and boys in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and also explaining why, contrary to the Bush administration’s claims that Guantánamo held “the worst of the worst,” some of these men were in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example), and very few of the 779 men held since the prison opened had any involvement with international terrorism.

In addition, at screenings throughout the year, including the BIFF, the filmmakers are focusing specifically on the ongoing plight of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo. Although he was cleared for release from Guantánamo in 2007, Shaker, a Saudi national with a British wife and four British children, is still held, despite the fact that, last November, he was included in a financial settlement that the British government reached with 15 former prisoners (which he obviously cannot conclude while held in Guantánamo), despite the fact that the Metropolitan Police are investigating his claims that British agents witnessed his abuse by US soldiers in a prison in Afghanistan, before his transfer to Guantánamo in February 2002, and despite the fact that the coalition government’s planned judicial inquiry into British complicity in torture abroad, announced by Prime Minister David Cameron last July, cannot legitimately start while he is still held.

For further information, interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Polly Nash or Andy Worthington. Below, on YouTube, you can watch the first five minutes of the film via Orchard Pictures, from whom you can also pay to watch the whole film online. You can also pay to watch it online, for just £1, via Journeyman Pictures.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in July 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.