Errol Morris has said that:

Memory is an elastic affair. We remember selectively, just as we perceive selectively. We have to go back over perceived and remembered events, in order to figure out what happened, what really happened. My re-enactments focus our attention on some specific detail or object that helps us look beyond the surface of images to something hidden, something deeper” something that better captures what really happened. [New York Times]

This is the thought that stuck with me through most of his latest film Standard Operating Procedure. Not just in relation to his reenactments or “illustrations” but in regards to the photographs in general.

SOP is the story of the the infamous photographs taken at Abu Ghraib. The photographs that were not only verite shots of prisoners being humiliated but also featured American soldiers in the frames, smiling, making hand gestures and posing the prisoners in disgusting positions. Morris’ film takes these photographs and juxtaposes them with the stories of the people who took them and were in them. He fills in the narrative gaps that exist in the framed snapshot of a moment.

We live in a picture obsessed society. We take pictures of everything and nothing. Digital technology has made it possible to click whenever we want with little or no thought to what we are doing and with no consequences. But what are we documenting and what do our thousands of pictures really say? In the case of the photographs from Abu Ghraib, I would be amazed if anyone didn’t look at those pictures and automatically think that the soldiers in them were animals, that they were the lowest possible form of what a person is.

I did.

What Morris’ film does is make you not only sit and come to terms with what actually happened in the prison, but it makes you questions your own ability to read a situation. I also assumed that the problem was not a group of bad apples, but was in fact the folks at the top. I did however assume that the soldiers in the photographs were “bad” - how easy it is to sit in my Brooklyn apartment at age 25 and assume that I would have made different choices, that I would have done “the right thing”

But really at age 20 how different was I from Lynndie England? The answer is not so much at all. I was pretty naive about the world, I often let decisions be made based on what guys I might be interested in and as a college student attending classes I was more or less doing exactly what was expected of me without asking many questions. Only 6 months apart in age, I can’t help but want to cry when I think about what she had to deal with when she turned 21 and what I was dealing with.

The other tragedy that Morris’ film makes you deal with is the story of Sabrina Harman.

Harman is one of three people who took the Abu Ghraib photographs and is seen specifically in the photographs of the dead prisoner and the one of the pyramid with a smile and a thumbs up sign. She spent a year in prison and many folks have demonized her. Standard Operating Procedure let’s her tell side of the story, not only through interviews but also through letters she wrote when she was actually in prison. The tragic part of the story comes in that Harman seemingly only wanted to document what was happening. She questioned what was happening and decided to take pictures and it seems that part of that was having to act. We would have never known about the dead prisoner without her, smile or not.

Beyond these more detailed and personal stories Morris brings up an issue that rarely is discussed - gender and the military. Seeing Janis Karpinski and Lynndie share their stories brings up points surrounding this country and how men still dominate. Add to that the fact that prisoners were sexually humiliated by female soldiers (and only females…) and it in undeniable that this war has found a new way to use and demean women.

There is of course much more I could discuss related to the film (use of graphic reenactment, stylization etc..) but I think it might be best to leave that for another post. As it is, watch the clips fromt he film below and to listen to a podcast at the ACLU website with Errol Morris : http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/sop.html:

The ACLU has allied with Participant Media in their social action campaign around “Standard Operating Procedure.” Errol Morris spoke with Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, about the film and how the photos and documents the ACLU helped release through the Freedom of Information Act together tell a pretty damning story of the administration’s abuses of power at every level. Resources for the social action campaign including a downloadable discussion guide and links to more information about our work in this area can be found at www.takepart.com/sop. “Standard Operating Procedure” opens on Friday, April 25th in New York, May 5 in Los Angeles, and will expand nationwide through the summer. [ACLU]