The Road to Guantanamo

On Monday, June 19, 2006 I went to the movie screening for "Road to Guantanamo." The event was co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Reel Progress. The screening was held at the Regal Cinemas Gallery Place 14 at 701 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC.

In September 2001, four friends set off from the English Midlands for a wedding and a holiday in Pakistan. Two and a half years later, three of them returned home. The Road to Guantanamo, winner of the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of these British Muslims, held in the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for over two years until they were released without charge in 2004. They were known as the "Tipton Three" in reference to their home town in Britain. With international attention once again focused on the conditions at the prison, The Road to Guantanamo is the first film to tell the inside story of the life behind the wire with the firsthand accounts from three former detainees. The film chronicles the sequence of events that led from the four setting out from Tipton in the British Midlands for a wedding in Pakistan; to their crossing the Afghanistan border just as the U.S. began their invasion, to their eventual capture by the Northern Alliance and their imprisonment in Camp X-Ray and later at Camp Delta in Guantanamo.

The movie theatre was on the third floor of the building. The building was in Chinatown, a district in Washington, DC. This was a very eventful movie screening. It was funny because after a third or so of the movie had been shown the fire alarm went off. We all had to evacuate the building. Everyone went to various exits. I came out on the back side of the building and had to walk around to the front. After about 20-30 minutes, we went back inside. A lot of the people had left by the time the movie began playing again. I'm truly glad I stayed because the movie made many of the viewers realize our governments cruelty to terrorism prisoners and prisoners that are not citizens of the United States of America.

I enjoyed the film, The Road to Guantanamo; it was very interesting and disturbing. I was glad I had the chance to view this film. After the film was shown, they had discussion. The panel was Brig. Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatric Institute of Washington; Michael Winterbottom, Director, The Road to Guantanamo; William F. Schulz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Ken Gude, Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program, Center for American Progress. The panel was moderated by Anna Soellner, Director of Outreach and Special Events, Center for American Progress.