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Arts & Entertainment

UNAFF Film Festival: Wednesday's Schedule

The documentaries to be screened in Palo Alto today portray the use of torture and its consequences.

The UNAFF 2012 International Documentary Film Festival continues in Palo Alto. Today’s films will be screened at Stanford University and at the Variety Theatre in San Francisco. To see the schedule of films in San Francisco, check the UNAFF website.

The mission of UNAFF, the United Nations Association Film Festival, is to promote social change through education. TICKET INFORMATION

Two films will be screened at Stanford Medical School in the Li Ka Shing Center Building, 291 Campus Dr., Room LK130.

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6 p.m. Doctors of the Dark Side
(73 min)

Director/Producer: Martha Davis

Find out what's happening in Palo Altowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Description:

Doctors of the Dark Side is the first feature length documentary about the pivotal role of physicians and psychologists in detainee torture. Stories of four detainees and the doctors involved in their abuse demonstrate how US Army and CIA doctors implemented the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and covered up signs of torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Interviews with medical, legal, and intelligence experts and evidence from declassified government memos document what has been called the greatest scandal in American medical ethics. Based on four years of research by producer/director Martha Davis, written by Oscar-winner Mark Jonathan Harris, filmed in HD by Emmy-winning director of photography Lisa Rinzler, and narrated by Oscar-winner Mercedes Ruehl, the film shows how the torture program requires medical assistance.

7:15 pm: Panel Discussion – Do We Still Need Torture?

8:15 pm: Beneath the Blindfold
(80 min)

Directors/Producers: Kathy Berger and Ines Sommer

Description:

A nursing home aide from Africa, an actor from Colombia, a U.S. Navy veteran from Chicago, and a physician from Guatemala. While appearing so different at first glance, they have a horrific experience in common: They have all been tortured. With a quiet, insisting voice, Beneath the Blindfold follows four torture survivors as they struggle through the daunting steps of rebuilding their lives. The first documentary to focus on the debilitating, lifelong consequences of torture, it adds an important perspective to the continued debate in the United States of America about government-sanctioned torture. Beneath the Blindfold sensitively paints a holistic portrait of the survivors’ experiences, their path to healing and life after torture.

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