Taxi to the Dark Side

Scene from "Taxi to the Dark Side" - Detainees in Iraq

From the director of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room", Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" is a gripping investigation into the reckless abuse of power by the Bush Administration.

The film won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 2008 Academy Awards.

By probing the homicide of an innocent taxi driver at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, the film exposes a worldwide policy of detention and interrogation that condones torture and the abrogation of human rights. This disturbing and often brutal film is the most incisive examination to date of the Bush Administration's willingness, in its prosecution of the "war on terror," to undermine the essence of the rule of law.

"We also have to work through ... the dark side ... it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective."

- Vice President Dick Cheney to Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" (2001)

The film asks and answers a key question: what happens when a few men expand the wartime powers of the executive to undermine the very principles on which the United States was founded.

Incorporating rare and never-before-seen images from inside the Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, and interviews with former government officials such as John Yoo, Alberto Mora and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, interrogators, prison guards, New York Times reporters Tim Golden and Carlotta Gall (who wrote the first stories about the homicides in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan) and the families of tortured prisoners, the film dissects the progression of the Administration's policy on torture from the secret role of key administration figures, such as Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and others to the soldiers in the field.

In the face of thousands of prisoners passing through the system, an astonishing number of admitted homicides, and a hastily drafted law - the Military Commissions Act - that grants immunity to government officials for crimes against humanity while denying the fundamental right of habeas corpus to others, "Taxi to the Dark Side" forces us to ask why, in the face of so much evidence of the ineffectiveness of cruelty as a means of obtaining information, we sought to insist on its use? Have we, by pursuing such ruthless means, lost the moral high ground in the war on terror and made ourselves less safe? Even more important, have we compromised our own sense of humanity, our democratic values and our effectiveness as a world leader?

Trailer

Awards

Taxi to the Dark Side has won or been nominated for many awards since its release in January of 2008:

• Won - Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
• Won - Writers Guild of America for Best Documentary Screenplay
• Nominated - Cinema Eye Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Direction
• Nominated - Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
• Nominated - IDA Awards for Best Documentary nomination
• Nominated - Gotham Awards - Best Documentary nomination

The Case Laid Out Methodically

"The filmmaker ... described it beforehand as a sort of murder mystery, using as its springboard the story of Dilawar, the young taxi driver who was apprehended by Afghan militia and turned over to the U.S. military at Bagram, where he was, in fact, eventually murdered. And that's not hyperbole -- the official coroner's report lists the cause of death as 'homicide'."

"...the film presents its case through interviews with guards and interrogators from Bagram, as well as former JAGs and other military officials ... [T]here's not a lot here that you probably don't already know — but it's still overwhelming to see the entire case laid out in such a methodical manner."

Tom Tomorrow's review at the Huffington Post.

Website

For more information about "Taxi to the Dark Side", please visit the official website TaxiToTheDarkSide.com.