BOING BOING
Amnesty's Unsubscribe Me video reenacts CIA stress-position torture
POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW, NOVEMBER 22, 2007 8:34 AM | PERMALINK

Amnesty International's "Unsubscribe Me" campaign invites us to unsubscribe from the use of torture in fighting the "war on terror;" to tell the world's governments that torture cannot be done in our name. As part of the campaign, they've released an incredibly moving and disturbing video reenacting a CIA-approved "stress position" torture taken straight out of a CIA interrogation manual. In order to make the film, the directors put the actor into a stress position for six hours -- the whimpers and trembling we see are real, the anguish you feel even when you choose to do this, let alone when you are kidnapped and subjected it for weeks, months or years. Amnesty is making two more videos and then doing a theatrical release for all three. We will never be made free by adopting the tactics of dictatorships.


ANDY CARVIN'S WASTE OF BANDWIDTH
Occasional Musings on Internet Culture, the Media and Countless Unrelated Topics
November 14, 2007

Interview: Viral Video Campaign Captures Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques
The human rights group Amnesty International has launched a new anti-torture campaign that's attempting to capitalize on the viral nature of Internet video to raise awareness about interrogation techniques reportedly used in Guantanamo Bay. The campaign, known as Unsubscribe Me, seeks to rally Internet users to demand that policymakers unsubscribe from policies that condone harsh interrogation techniques. The first of three videos is now online, and it will undoubtedly be controversial.

Produced by Marc Hawker and Ishbel Whitaker and starring Jiva Parthipan, Waiting for the Guards is a film short depicting a prisoner forced to squat in a "stress position," balancing on two cardboard boxes while a hood envelopes his head. As the prisoner struggles to maintain the position, an indifferent interrogator lounges in the hallway, killing time by pacing around and calling up his daughter on his mobile phone before picking up the interrogation where it left off.

To make the film, Hawker and Whitaker subjected Parthipan to six hours in the stress position. So when you watch the video, his agony is not acting; he's actually experiencing the interrogation technique first-hand.

This week I had the chance to interview Marc Hawker and Jiva Parthipan about their experiences making the film. Here's what they had to say.

Andy Carvin: How did this project come about? Did you approach Amnesty International or the other way around?

Marc Hawker: We were asked to be part of a consortium in a pitch to come up with a strategy for a campaign to give people a place to make their voice heard in protesting about the use of torture and the abuse of human rights in the so-called War On Terror. We came up with the word "unsubscribe." It was a simple, but powerful idea - take a word that is widely used on the Internet and politicize it - for people to unsubscribe from human rights abuse. The consortium won the pitch and we devised the campaign concepts together.

As part of the campaign we were asked to make three films on what are called "enhanced interrogation techniques" which are used by the CIA and endorsed by the US government. Amnesty and we believe these techniques are torture and must stop. It devalues what we hold dear in our societies.

Andy: Jiva, what attracted you to the project?

Jiva Parthipan: Much of my art practice is concerned with, the manner in which power is negotiated in the interpersonal, social, geopolitical and sexual spheres. Therefore this seemed a natural choice to make. Furthermore, on a personal note, I was brought up in Sri Lanka and my uncle went missing when taken into questioning by the army. So I am very concerned about torture.

Andy: Marc, how did you convince Jiva to participate?

Marc: We approached Jiva, who is a performance artist, because he both understood endurance performing and also had his own personal political views that were aligned with the campaign. We did not have a problem convincing him to undergo the extreme nature of the filming as he understood the principles and trusted our approach. Both him and us insisted that we would have medical supervision on the set and we would never go beyond what Jiva could bare. We agreed a code word - the word "green," which Jiva would shout if the pain got too much. Of course, people who are in detention around the world by the CIA in "black sites," secret prison camps and foreign prisons have no such back up, and no such get-out clause.

Andy: Jiva, were you worried how the experience might affect you?

Jiva: Not much. I have made durational endurance based works before.

Andy: So what was the production process like?

Marc: This was the strangest experience for all involved. We kept the film crew as small as possible, as this was going to be a very intimate shoot. We wanted as little distraction as possible. Everyone knew what was going to happen, so there was a sense of tension everywhere. None of us knew what the experience of filming was going to be like.

What was important to us was to shoot this horror as beautifully as possible. This was a core concept to the filming. We needed to find a way that people would continue to watch something they felt shocked by. So a lot of time was spent composing what the shots would be before we actually started filming.

Jiva: Altogether there were 29 takes. Each time I was put into a stress position and would stop only when my body couldnâ€--t take it any more and I started to squat involuntarily or fall off the box.

Andy: What kind of emotional or physical response, if any, did you have from watching Jiva in the stress positions?

Marc: We were shocked. We knew what to expect, but were taken aback by how quickly the experience became unbearable for Jiva. It was not normal for us to put someone in pain and anguish and keep them there as long as we can. It's just not a normal thing a director does. There was no acting from Jiva; his moans and shudders and physical shaking shocked us all. Of course, we also had a job to do - to capture it and film it as best we could do.

But it had an effect on us all. There was something surreally religious about it as an experience. The shape of Jiva in the space, his isolation and pain felt very much like a sacrificial lamb. It was very, very strange. All of the crew were hushed; there was none of the usual playing around and jokes. It was a silent set.

Andy: Jiva, were you surprised in any way in terms of how you handled the stress positions, either physically or mentally?

Jiva: I am a physically fit person and swim regularly. Before starting to do my own work influenced by live art and performance art I had trained as a dancer. So holding positions wasnâ€--t new for me. I assumed I would be able to keep a position for about 12 minutes before my body seized. I was surprised that after about seven minutes my body couldnâ€--t take it any more. Also the more takes there were, the less time I could hold the position.

Andy: At any point in the production process did you feel yourself becoming inured to Jiva's pain?

Marc: Never. When he shouted â€--green” and we cut, I would rush over to him with the medic and we would make sure he was okay. We brought a journalist and photographer down, and Amnesty were there as well. Everyone was focused on Jiva.

Andy: Even though Jiva was a willing participant, were there any concerns about the legality of subjecting him to this treatment, even if for documentary purposes?

Marc: There were all sorts of legal issues. Jiva had to sign a disclaimer; we had to have special insurance. We all understood that there were difficult ethical issues in what we were doing, but all agreed that the only way to show the obscene nature of these interrogation techniques was to present to the audience the reality in as authentic a way as possible.

Andy: Would you ever do anything like this again, or was it too disturbing?

Jiva: Involuntarily? No. Voluntarily? Yes, if that what it takes to get a point through.

I was lucky. I knew I could stop any time I wanted to. Also, the people around me were very supportive and kind. I knew what was going to happen after the film shoot - meeting friends - and definitely knew where I was. It bears not thinking what it will be like if you were in those positions for much longer, in an undisclosed location and not knowing what was going to happen next. One would tell anything that the interrogator wanted to hear!

Andy: How about you, Marc?

Marc: We are starting production on the next of the three films. This one is about waterboarding, a technique used again by the CIA. This involves pouring water over the cloth-covered head of the prisoner that makes them feel like they are drowning. This film will be different. Waiting For The Guards dealt with the separation of prisoner and interrogator. The "stress position" does not involve physical contact. The next film will. The interrogator is actively physically abusing the prisoner. It is going to be more brutal. We are looking for a way to film this new one with the same empathy Waiting For The Guards has for Jiva. We are at concept stage at the moment, filming in December and releasing the film in Jan 11th, the birthday of Guantanamo Bay.

Andy: How is the video being distributed?

Marc: The video is on YouTube, and we ask everyone who is behind the campaign to get the film out there. It is also on www.unsubscribe-me.org, where people can sign up to the campaign and download Widgets of the film to post on their websites and blogs. There are also MySpace, Bebo and Facebook sites with the film on it. The campaign was designed to encourage campaigning through social networking sites. We'd like to ask everyone to watch the film, and get it out there. The way our society handles itself over the next decade in confronting terrorism is critical. We can't let our values be destroyed, and we need to hold those ordering, doing these acts, to account.
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THE INDEPENDENT
Amnesty film shows agony of US detention techniques
By Terri Judd
Published: 10 September 2007

Forced on to the balls of his feet, bent double with his hands handcuffed behind his back, the near-naked man shook violently. From beneath the hood, muted moans were audible. It seemed obscene to stare at this apparently frail, vulnerable man, caught in a stress position reminiscent of the images of Iraqi prisoners being interrogated by US soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Yet this was not torture. It was art.

In an attempt to draw attention to human rights abuses, Amnesty International has filmed a dancer in the positions captives have been forced to adopt by US troops. The resulting film makes shocking viewing. During a break in filming, Jiva Parthipan, a Sri Lankan performance artist, appeared relieved as he rubbed his limbs, which were aching after just a couple of minutes in a position that suspects in President George Bush's "war on terror" are expected to endure for hours.

The star of the Amnesty International film, which is being released online next month to highlight the agony of such interrogation techniques, said he found the experience painful, both physically and psychologically. In secret jails across the world, Amnesty insists, captives in the fight against terrorism are expected to maintain these poses. They are not considered torture, simply "enhanced interrogation techniques". Alfred McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued recently that the photographs from Abu Ghraib reflected standard CIA torture techniques of " stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation".

In August, President Bush issued an order decreeing that Article 3 of the Third Geneva Convention – which prohibits the humiliating or degrading treatment of prisoners of war – should apply to the CIA's detention and interrogation programme. But Amnesty believes the order does not go far enough in specifying what constitutes degrading treatment.

It is calling for an end to all secret detentions, as well as for detainees to be given access to lawyers, medical care and monitors. It wants all allegations of enforced disappearance, torture and ill treatment levelled at the CIA to be investigated independently.

Amnesty's film, entitled Waiting For The Guards, forms the backbone of a new campaign the charity hopes will draw attention to such interrogation techniques. The film, by Marc Hawker and Ishbel Whitaker, does not attempt to document the mental torture of being kept in a secret location with no contact with the outside world, simply the physical agony of such allegedly innocuous methods. The crew expected it to be an arduous task but were shocked and disturbed by how quickly Parthipan found it impossible to endure the stress position.

"He is somebody who is physically fit but suffered excruciating pain. It was shocking how real and visceral the process was," said Hawker, adding: "He was surprised himself just how quickly the position took over. He was in a lot of pain and felt a lot of emotion.

"He was in a safe environment but we said that, if you were just off a jet, did not know where you were or what your future held, how psychologically tortuous it would be."

Richard Lowdon, the actor who plays the interrogator, added: "It was quite unpleasant watching Jiva. There was something unbearable about it. It is degrading to the person who is doing it, as well as to the person to whom it is done. It is very dehumanising."

Amnesty hopes its campaign will prompt people to object to such practices. It recently named 38 men and a woman it claims were whisked away on secret CIA "rendition" flights and disappeared into prisons worldwide. The charity has spoken to former detainees, such as the British al-Qa'ida suspect Moazzam Begg, who was held in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The suggestion is that they suffer a bit of discomfort, when in fact they endure quite severe pain," said Sara MacNeice, Amnesty's campaigns co-ordinator. "We are sending the message that this is ill treatment, but we should be calling it by its rightful name."


CAMPAIGN
Amnesty wages battle on the war on terror
by Larissa Vince

LONDON - Amnesty International is to launch a hard-hitting new campaign against human rights abuses by governments performed in the name of the 'war on terror'.

A series of three poster executions, created by Drugstore, uses images so graphic that the UK's two biggest poster operators, JCDecaux and Clear Channel, have refused to carry them.

The 48 sheets, which feature scenes of torture, illegal detention and bombsites, will run on sites owned by Titan Outdoor from the beginning of next week.

Using the strapline "unsubscribe", the posters urge people to visit a social networking site, www.unsubscribe-me.org, where they can remove their name from the electoral register as a sign of their protest against the war on terror - which, according to the site "has been used to justify acts of torture, 'rendition', discrimination and unlawful detention."

Drugstore has also created three short films, the first of which will be released in arthouse cinemas from early 2008. The film, "Waiting for the guards", shows a blindfolded, handcuffed man stripped to his underwear and crouching on a cardboard box - the so-called "stress position" used as part of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques".

The campaign has also enlisted the support of Moazzam Begg, the British man held without charge for over two years at Guantanamo Bay. Begg said: "Removing freedoms gives rise to hostility and leads to terrorism; terrorism allows governments to justify the restriction of liberty. We must unsubscribe to both."


CREATIVITY ONLINE
Amnesty rails against human rights abuse.

With the human rights abuse stories at both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo as springboards, Amnesty International UK is highlighting this controversial issue with its new campaign dubbed "Unsubscribe."

Playing off the familiar email list term, the campaign petition encourages concerned visitors to "remove" their name, so to speak, in the hopes of de-authorizing "Government acts of torture, rendition and illegal detention perpetuated under cover of fighting terrorism."

The centerpiece of the interactive portion of "Unsubscribe" is the startling two-minute short film, "Waiting for the Guards." Stark and grim, the film spotlights "belly slap," one of a handful of commonly-known interrogation methods used by the government. While it features a sweating, hooded prisoner dressed in only underwear, handcuffed behind his back and standing upon two boxes convulsing with fear, the more unsettling moments of the video focus on the interrogator himself, a well-dressed Brit who's engaged in cutesy phone chatter with his daughter before heading back to do his deed.

After viewing the film, visitors can then click through and if so inclined, join the cause and enter their name and email, which will lead them to a social networking site for "Unsubscribe" and other assorted goods like widgets pertaining to the campaign.