taxi to the dark side ( oscars best documentary )

[luke]

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this won best documentary at the oscars, anyone seen it?

democracy now interviewed the guy who did it today - “Taxi to the Dark Side”: Exposé on US Abuses in “War on Terror” Wins Oscar for Best Documentary

who votes for the oscars?

[faceless]

I've not seen it, or heard of it, but I'll keep an eye out.

The Oscars are voted for by the 'Academy' members - there's a few thousand I think, spread over America. It's they who provide the dvd-screeners that you see on the net.

edit: I just found it - downloading now... if I find it on a public site I'll post in the members section.

[luke]

i was reading on wiki that this was part of some bbc 'why democracy?' series, i have vague memories of the series but i didn't catch this one;

Taxi to the Dark Side is part of the Why Democracy? series. The series consists of ten documentary films from around the world questioning and examining contemporary democracy. As part of the series Taxi to the Dark Side will be broadcasted in no less than 35 different countries around the world between the 8th and 18th of October 2007. The BBC cut their broadcast down to 79 minutes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_to_the_Dark_Side

americans will be able to catch it on hbo later this year after the discovery channel bought it then decided not to show it!

In June 2007, the Discovery Channel bought the rights to broadcast Taxi to the Dark Side. However, in February 2008, they made public their intention never to broadcast the documentary due to its controversial nature.[6] HBO then bought rights to the film and announced that it would be broadcast in September 2008, after which the Discovery Channel announced it would broadcast Taxi to the Dark Side in 2009. Many left-wing pundits and bloggers derided the decision, claiming that the Discovery Channel didn't want to risk Gibney criticizing the network at the Academy Awards should his movie win the Best Documentary Oscar, and also pointed out that the Discovery Channel's projected 2009 broadcast date would occur after President George W. Bush left office.

they talk more about this in the democracy now interview above

[Ash]

If it's from BBC, then it's a cut version. https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Tax ... _Dark_Side

[faceless]

The file I have is 1h 18'52 long, on that docuwiki page it says it should be 10 seconds longer, so I'm sure it's the same really.

[luke]

its on google video if anyones interested;

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6577&hl=en

The film documents how Rumsfeld, together with the White House legal team, were able to convince Congress to approve the use of torture against prisoners of war. Taxi to the Dark Side is the definitive exploration of the introduction of torture as an interrogation technique in U.S. facilities, and the role played by key figures of the Bush Administration in the process.

Over one hundred prisoners have died in suspicious circumstances in U.S. custody during the "war on terror". Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at one case: an Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar who was considered an honest and kind man by the people of his rustic village. So when he was detained by the U.S military one afternoon, after picking up three passengers, denizens wondered why this man was randomly chosen to be held in prison, and, especially, without trial?

Five days after his arrest Dilawar died in his Bagram prison cell. His death came within a week of another death of a detainee at Bagram. The conclusion, with autopsy evidence, was that the former taxi driver and the detainee who passed away before him, had died due to sustained injuries inflicted at the prison by U.S. soldiers.

The documentary, by award-winning producer Alex Gibney, carefully develops the last weeks of Dilawar’s life and shows how decisions taken at the pinnacle of power in the Bush Administration led directly to Dilawar’s brutal death.

[faceless]

Someone put it on youtube (better quality) - I've added it to your first post...