A special screening and discussion panel of “The Response” will be held tonight at the James Bridges Theater in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
“The Response” is a courtroom drama based on the actual transcripts from a tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“It explores the trial of an enemy combatant and the military judges who have to decide his fate,” said Sig Libowitz, the film’s writer and producer.
Libowitz explained that a lot of people have an idea as to what Guantanamo Bay is and what goes on, but no one really knows since the military has never allowed filming in the facility.
“For the first time, the movie allows the audience to see what happens inside Guantanamo, since it is based on the actual transcripts,” Libowitz said.
Guantanamo Bay, which is located in Cuba, is a naval base that has a contained military prison inside for persons alleged to be enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2002.
The short film was just released a couple of months ago and has already been accepted into several academy award recognized film festivals, Libowitz said.
After the movie, a special panel will be held discussing the movie as well as important issues concerning Guantanamo Bay, said David Kaye, executive director of International Human Rights Program at UCLA’s Law School.
The panel will consist of Adam Rodgers, the director of the movie, Professor Jack Beard of UCLA School Of Law, Professor David Glazier of Loyola Law School and Former U.S. War Crimes Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, who dealt with special issues regarding Guantanamo Bay, Kaye added.
Because President Barack Obama has said he wants to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, Kaye said the discussion will touch on some of the questions facing the Obama Administration, including the consequences of the closure of Guantanamo.
Throughout the month of February, UCLA Law’s International Human Rights program, the International Human Right Law Students Association, and the Public Interest Law and Policy program will be hosting a series of events to increase understanding of what might happen after the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
Other events that will occur later in the month include a luncheon with a human rights representative from UC Berkeley and a discussion with a leading writer on his proposal to investigate the detainee abuses during the Bush era.