Visiting Filmmakers Series presents: Beneath the Blindfold at JCC 6 February 4:30pm
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 4:30 PM EST
Johnson Center, Cinema
The Film & Video Studies Program and the Film & Media Studies Program are bringing the documentary Beneath the Blindfold and directors Ines Sommer and Kathy Berger to George Mason University on 6 February, 4:30pm in the Johnson Center Cinema. The event is free and open to the public.
As Zero Dark Thirty is currently generating debate concerning torture as US policy, it is worth noting that the voices of torture survivors are rarely included in any of the public discussions about the use of torture. But without their stories, torture remains abstract, a practice that happens to people we neither know nor care about. They become statistics, their human suffering easily ignored.The film sets out to counter the "blind spot" in our national conversation about torture by focusing on survivors’ personal stories, insights and struggles. Most Americans are unaware that many torture survivors live right in our midst: they are among the refugees and political asylees who have found safe harbor in the U.S. They are struggling to make new lives for themselves, while healing their deep physical and psychological wounds. Estimates place the number of torture survivors living in the U.S. at over 500,000. Torture survivors know firsthand the destructive and long-lasting impact that torture has had on them personally, on their families and communities.
Beneath the Blindfold sets out to counter the "blind spot" in our national conversation about torture by focusing on survivors’ personal stories, insights and struggles.
The GMU screening, followed by the Q&A with directors Ines Sommer and Kathy Berger, is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Film & Video Studies and Film & Media Studies.
