Revisiting The Oath and Gitmo, 10 Years After 9/11

In recognition of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, ITVS and PBS NewsHour will be hosting a live chat with The Oath filmmaker Laura Poitras and others.

The Oath, which is streaming free on ITVS Indies Showcase from September 11-13, follows the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals.

Moderated by NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan, Monday’s live chat will feature a panel of experts including:

• Abdul-Ghani Aliryani
Political Analyst and Co-founder of the Democratic Awakening Movement
Abdul-Ghani Aliryani is a Yemeni political researcher and analyst, who played an advisory role to filmmaker Laura Poitras in the making of The Oath. He is based in Sana’a, Yemen.

• Lt. Cmdr. Brian L. Mizer
Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Eastern District of Virginia
Lt. Cmdr. Brian L. Mizer served as Salim Hamdan’s lawyer at Guantanamo and is featured throughout the documentary The Oath.

• Laura Poitras
Filmmaker, The Oath
Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras has directed several acclaimed documentaries including Flag Wars (2003) and My Country, My County (2006). Her film The Oath is part of a trilogy of films about America post 9/11 and earned top honors for cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

• Andrea Prasow
Senior Counterterrorism Counsel, Human Rights Watch
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Andrea was a defense attorney with the Office of Military Commissions. She served as assistant counsel for Salim Hamdan alongside Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer.

Join us for the event on BTB on Monday, September 12 at 11AM PT / 2PM ET.

Tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, bush, Guantanamo, hari sreenivasan, Iraq, Laura Poitras, osama bin laden, pbs newshour, The Oath, War on Terror, yemen

The Oath Airs Tuesday Night on POV

The ITVS-funded documentary by Laura Poitras is a story about family, taxis, al Qaeda, Guantanamo Bay, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Oath is the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals.

Filmed in Yemen, The Oath is the second installment in a trilogy about America post 9/11.  The first film, My Country, My Country, documented the U.S. occupation of Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqi family. The third film will focus on domestic surveillance.
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Tags: 9/11 september 11, Al Qaeda, ITVS, Laura Poitras, osama bin laden, P.O.V., terrorist attacks, The Oath, yemen

Independent Lens and ITVS Receive Nine Emmy Nominations

The Emmy nominations are in and several Independent Lens docs and ITVS-funded films have been recognized. You can find a complete list of all the nominated films after the jump. Congratulations to the filmmakers!

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Tags: A Promise to the Dead, A Village Called Versailles, art & copy, deep down, emmy awards, emmy nominations, Independent Lens, ITVS, itvs funded, off and running, The Eyes of Me, the longoria affair, The Oath, virtual mine

Several ITVS Films Honored by IDA

The winners of the International Documentary Association’s 2010 IDA Documentary Awards were announced this week with several ITVS films earning high praise, including:

Waste Land
***Airing this season on Independent Lens

The IDA Pare Lorentz Award, in homage to the pioneering filmmaker’s legacy, was awarded to Lucy Walker for Waste Land. The documentary follows artist Vik Muniz on a transformative journey from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho.
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Tags: Bhutto, for once in my life, ida, Independent Lens, ITVS, The Oath, waste land

Several ITVS Films Nominated for IDA Awards

Nominees for the 2010 IDA Documentary Awards were announced this week, with many of the year’s most buzzed-about titles and festival favorites making the list.

Several ITVS films were nominated, including a handful from Independent Lens. Winners will be announced on December 3 at the Directors Guild Theater in Los Angeles in a ceremony hosted by award-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

See the ITVS nominees below and join us in congratulating all the filmmakers!

Distinguished Feature Nominees

The Oath
Director: Laura Poitras

Producers: Laura Poitras
Co-Producer: Nasser Arrabyee, Aliza Kaplan, Jonathan Oppenheim
Associate Producer: Robert Hatch-Miller, Katy Scoggin, Pandora Zolotor
ITVS, POV/American Documentary, Praxis Films, Zeitgeist Films

Waste Land
Director/Writer: Lucy Walker
***Airing this season on Independent Lens

Producers: Angus Aynsley, Hank Levine
Executive Producers: Jackie De Botton, Miel De Botton, Fernando Meirelles, Emillia Mello
Almega Projects, O2 Filmes, E1 Films Canada, Arthouse Films
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Tags: for once in my life, Independent Lens, P.O.V., The Oath, waste land, when i rise

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Filmmaker Fears She’s On U.S. Watch List
The name “Laura Poitras” is familiar to Oscar judges, film festival juries, and security officers at U.S. airports, which is what happens when one directs critically acclaimed documentaries that require spending months in dangerous areas of the Middle East. 
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War Insight, Beyond Bang-Bang
At midlife, in a soft job, and nagged by questions that no one was answering, Carol Dysinger boarded a plane from New York to Dubai and then caught a connecting flight into Kabul. The answers, and new questions, emerge in her documentary, Camp Victory, Afghanistan, which she made over five years of listening, watching and asking.
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Cambodia Vs. ‘Chea’
The director of Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a documentary about the 2004 slaying of the Cambodian union leader, is asserting that the Cambodian government has banned screenings of the film. U.S. helmer Bradley Cox says the government has been preventing showings of his film for the past month in the first banning of a politically charged film since the 1980s.
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An Interview With The Director Of ‘The Oath,’ About Osama Bin Laden’s Driver And Bodyguard
Laura Poitras’ documentary, The Oath, … paints close-up portraits of Osama bin Laden’s driver Salim Hamdan and bodyguard Nasser al-Bahri (aka Abu Jandal). She won’t tell how she found the footage.
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Tags: Cambodia, Laura Poitras, review, The Oath, Who Killed Chea Vichea?