Agony, irony, ire
SAVITHA GAUTAM
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Catch Alex Gibney’s Oscar winning documentary, ‘Taxi to the Dark Side,’ on NDTV Documentary 24X7.
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Raises questions on ethics Taxi to the Dark Side.
T>here seems to be certain calmness on taxi driver Dilawar’s face even as he lies limp after being tortured mercilessly. It’s that moment that lives with you as you watch the Oscar winning documentary ‘Taxi to the Dark Side.’ The docu, to be aired on NDTV’s Documentary 24x7, on June 22, 1-2 p.m., focuses on the innocent taxi driver who was killed at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and questions the ethics involved in the war on terror. The man who’s responsible for telling the world about the young man’s tragic tale is Alex Gibney.
The American film director and producer, who has to his credit many award winning documentaries such as ‘Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,’ ‘The Trials of Henry Kissinger,’ ‘Jimi Hendrix and the Blues’ and his latest ‘Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,’ also runs Jigsaw Productions that makes independent films, music documentaries and TV mini-series. Excerpts from an interview:
What prompted you to make ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’?
I was approached by a group of American lawyers who were furious about what was being done to the rule of law. My father – who had been a Navy interrogator in WW-II in the Pacific Theater – also urged me to take it up. He, too was angry that President Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others had so badly undermined the very values we were claiming to defend in the war on terror.
A film of this kind takes a lot of courage and conviction to make. What happened to all those men and women who killed the innocent Afghan taxi driver?
The soldiers were nervous about appearing but they also felt they had become scapegoats in the whole affair. What is more, the men and women behind the incident were not interrogated or punished. The lines are in the film.
Do you see either John McCain or Barack Obama learning from past experiences?
As 9/11 recedes to the past, Americans are beginning to reckon with the way our political leaders have tampered with civil liberties, the rule of law and the sanctity of the individual – the very things we claim to be fighting for in the war on terror. We have lost the confidence of the rest of the world when it comes to these issues: we have become a state that promotes torture. In order to get back the confidence and respect of the world, we will have to prove to everyone that we are capable of investigating ourselves. The question for McCain and Obama is this: will either man have the courage to investigate the crimes committed during the war on terror?
In India, documentaries as a genre aren’t as popular as features. So how will you make more and more people watch such sensitive films?
Make better films. I think documentaries are catching on because they are structured like movies but have all the surprises that can only come from real life. Once people start watching the good ones, they can’t stop.
What kind of subjects do you find yourself attracted to most of the time?
Stories of abuse of power and corruption. I am also interested in self-deception.
What did the Oscar win mean to the film?
It brought many more people to the film and it showed Dilawar’s face to millions of people around the world.
Your personal favourite films/ documentaries …
There are quite a few. ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ and ‘Out of the Past,’ and the docus ‘Gimme Shelter,’ ‘The Sorrow and the Pity’ and ‘Viridiana.’
The next film you are working on?
‘Gonzo: the Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.’ (Thompson created the Gonzo style of journalism, where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become the central figures of their stories.)
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