Watching the Unwatchable: Films Confront Torture

11/1/09 to 2/7/10

When the unthinkable happens, we must watch the unwatchable. Filmmakers take on torture in this continuing program, presented in conjunction with the BAM exhibition Fernando Botero: The Abu Ghraib Series.

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  • Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi, February 7|© Adam Kufeld

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Standard Operating Procedure

    Sunday, November 1 3:00 pm
    Errol Morris (U.S., 2008). Introduced by Laurel Fletcher. Seeking to understand the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs, Errol Morris looks outside the frame. “As a human document of what people are capable of in wartime, it's indispensable.”-Christian Science Monitor (117 mins)
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  • Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment

    Sunday, November 1 5:30 pm
    Ken Musen (U.S., 1988). A documentary on the notorious 1971 psychological experiment that transformed college students into “prisoners” and “guards.” With Vinyl, Andy Warhol's very loose adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. (114 mins)
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  • S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

    Thursday, November 5 8:15 pm
    Rithy Panh (Cambodia, 2002). Victims and perpetrators of state violence in Cambodia together confront the atrocities of the 1970s in Rithy Panh's moving documentary. “Unforgettable . . . as horrific an exposure to evil as Shoah.”-Village Voice (105 mins)
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  • The Underground Orchestra

    Sunday, December 6 3:00 pm
    Heddy Honigmann (The Netherlands, 1997). A portrait of the buskers of the Paris Métro-a Venezuelan harpist, an Algerian singer, a violinist from Sarajevo-becomes a document of survival in exile. “A splendid example of how illuminating and entertaining a documentary can be.”-L.A. Times (108 mins)
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  • Confortorio

    Thursday, January 21 7:00 pm
    Paolo Benvenuti (Italy, 1992). A group of Catholic high priests attempt to convert two Jewish thieves to Christianity before their execution in this baroque, Caravaggesque Italian thriller, recently spotlighted at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. (85 mins)
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  • Le petit soldat

    Thursday, January 21 8:45 pm
    Jean-Luc Godard (France, 1960). A disillusioned French counter-agent in Geneva becomes embroiled with Algerian separatists, Parisian torturers, and Anna Karina in Godard's second film, banned for three years in France. (88 mins)
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  • Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

    Saturday, January 23 8:30 pm
    Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy, 1975). Pasolini's most controversial film-a graphic adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's famous work, adapted to an Italian Fascist milieu-“has not been tamed by the passage of years.”-L.A. Times. Adults only. (117 mins)
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  • Open City

    Thursday, January 28 8:35 pm
    Roberto Rossellini (Italy, 1945). A group of women and children try to shelter resistance forces from the Nazis in this landmark work of Italian neorealism. (102 mins)
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  • The Wall

    Sunday, January 31 6:00 pm
    Yilmaz Güney (France, 1983). The great Turkish filmmaker Güney, jailed for years as a political prisoner, delivers an astonishing portrait of life in a Turkish jail, where violent felons, government critics, teenage thieves, and abusive guards are all behind the walls. (117 mins)
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  • How Nice to See You Alive

    Tuesday, February 2 7:30 pm
    Lúcia Murat (Brazil, 1989). Documentary interviews are interspersed with fictional monologues in this heartbreaking Brazilian essay-film, based on the accounts of eight women held as political prisoners under the Brazilian dictatorship. (100 mins)
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  • Seven Moments

    Thursday, February 4 8:30 pm
    Diana Cardozo (Mexico, 2008). The little-known story of the Tupamaros, a radical urban guerilla group in Uruguay, is recounted in this intriguing Mexican documentary, which focuses on seven women who took a major role in the group. (90 mins)
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  • Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi

    Sunday, February 7 5:30 pm
    Quique Cruz, Marilyn Mulford (U.S./Chile, 2008). Musical performance by Quijeremá. Cruz, a Chilean composer/musician/poet now living in the Bay Area, converts his memories of imprisonment in Pinochet's notorious torture center Villa Grimaldi into art in this touching documentary on the power of remembrance and healing. (88 mins)
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