Documentaries, old and new, with stills and notes for students, makers, and observers of documentary film and video. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, February 2, 2015
Errol Morris
Standard Operating Procedure (2008) by Errol Morris gives new weight and meaning to the disturbing Abu Ghraib photographs taken by US military personnel documenting prisoner abuse. Morris makes sense of the photographs by emphasizing and re-enacting their creation (top still) and also by visually lining up images taken at the same time and place (second still) on different cameras. Interviews with the men and women working at Abu Ghraib shine additional light on the history and implications of the war in Iraq. Box office figures from Standard Operating Procedure's 2008 theatrical release show that it made under $300,000 in the United States, showing at about 20 movie theaters. American Sniper, in contrast, has made about $250 million dollars so far in the US, at about 3900 movie theaters.
Title:
Standard Operating Procedure