Inside Al-Qaeda: The Oath
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/02/2010 - 11:26.
Zeitgeist Films has announced the U.S. theatrical premiere of Laura Poitras’ The Oath, a documentary about the divergent paths of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, Abu Jandal, and driver, Salim Hamdan – the first prisoner detained at Guantanamo Bay to face trial by military commission.
Currently screening at the 2010 New Directors/New Films series, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, and winner of the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Cinematography, The Oath will open at New York’s IFC Center on May 7, followed by a roll out to select U.S. cities.
Academy Award-nominated director Laura Poitras brings to audiences a singular work of high-risk filmmaking with this gripping documentary political thriller shot on location in Yemen. The Oath is the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting ultimately propelled them on very different courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, September 11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme court.
Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Yemen and a free man, while the man he recruited, his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan, is the first man to stand trial before the controversial Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay Prison.
Abu Jandal and Hamdan’s intertwined personal trajectories – how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver respectively – act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world, which has confounded the Western media.
As Hamdan’s trial progresses, his military lawyers challenge the court system, while back in Yemen the charismatic and elusive Abu Jandal dialogues with his young son, Muslim students and journalists in a chilling revelation of his personal post-9/11 belief system. The Oath offers unsettling glimpses of the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror and a rare window into the world of Al-Qaeda.
Zeitgeist Films www.zeitgeistfilms.com/theoath
Currently screening at the 2010 New Directors/New Films series, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, and winner of the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Cinematography, The Oath will open at New York’s IFC Center on May 7, followed by a roll out to select U.S. cities. Academy Award-nominated director Laura Poitras brings to audiences a singular work of high-risk filmmaking with this gripping documentary political thriller shot on location in Yemen. The Oath is the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting ultimately propelled them on very different courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, September 11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme court.
Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Yemen and a free man, while the man he recruited, his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan, is the first man to stand trial before the controversial Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay Prison.
Abu Jandal and Hamdan’s intertwined personal trajectories – how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver respectively – act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world, which has confounded the Western media.
As Hamdan’s trial progresses, his military lawyers challenge the court system, while back in Yemen the charismatic and elusive Abu Jandal dialogues with his young son, Muslim students and journalists in a chilling revelation of his personal post-9/11 belief system. The Oath offers unsettling glimpses of the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror and a rare window into the world of Al-Qaeda.
Zeitgeist Films www.zeitgeistfilms.com/theoath
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