ACLU And PEN American Center To Present "Reckoning With Torture" At Sundance Film Festival

Doug Liman Will Direct The Performance On Saturday, January 29 At Park City’s Egyptian Theater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

PARK CITY, UT – The American Civil Liberties Union and PEN American Center, in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival, will present a special performance of “Reckoning With Torture: Memos and Testimonies From the ‘War on Terror’” on Saturday, January 29 at 12:00 p.m. MST at the Egyptian Theater in Park City, Utah. Acclaimed director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fair Game) will direct this special performance of “Reckoning,” an evening of readings, screenings and art meant to raise awareness of the last administration’s torture program and to press the current administration to hold accountable the government officials who authorized torture.

“It’s a privilege to work with the ACLU and PEN American Center on this important project,” said Liman. “As the documents we are presenting make clear, there is no longer any doubt that the United States repeatedly and systematically violated longstanding prohibitions on torture. We’re at a pivotal moment in history, and my hope is that America will choose a path toward restoring this nation as a defender of human rights. If everyone gets involved in calling for accountability for torture, that is what will happen.”

Paul Auster, Annie Proulx, Marilynne Robinson, Naomi Wolf, Sandra Cisneros, Alex Gibney and other internationally acclaimed writers and artists will join former CIA and military officials to read from the detailed reports of numerous prisoners, government memos authorizing abusive techniques and other documents detailing the scope and disastrous human cost of the U.S. torture program. Never-before-seen videos of former Guantánamo detainees discussing the abuse they endured will be screened between readings. The artist Jenny Holzer, whose work was the subject of a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2009, has created original artwork for the “Reckoning” project. Many of the readings come from government documents obtained by the ACLU in a lawsuit that the New York Times recently described as “among the most successful in the history of public disclosure.”

“The ‘Reckoning With Torture’ program is one part of our broader effort to press the Obama administration to hold accountable the senior government officials who authorized torture,” said Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU. “We are gratified that Doug Liman and so many extraordinary artists are joining this effort. The administration’s failure to confront the legacy of torture compromises America’s ability to advocate for human rights in other countries and erodes the rule of law here at home. We hope that the ‘Reckoning’ program can help convey how crucial it is that we confront this legacy rather than ignore it.”

“Something extraordinary happens when ordinary people stand up in public and read the words of these formerly secret government documents,” PEN American Center Freedom to Write and International Programs Director Larry Siems added. “To work with Doug Liman and this incredible group of readers to bring this experience to Sundance – and to record this event for a documentary film that will make the experience available to all Americans – will do more than a thousand news reports and editorials to explain how we honor the best in ourselves and in our history by collectively confronting the past.”

The ACLU and PEN have been staging “Reckoning With Torture” events around the country for the past two years. The Sundance event will mark the start of production of a feature length documentary, which will also be directed by Liman.

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