Video: Telling off the Supreme Court

Everyone in our office has been talking about this video clip from Boston Legal.

Here's one "Visitor" no one should miss!

How often do you get a chance to be simultaneously entertained, informed and inspired to take action at the movies – and emerge with your paycheck intact?

This can be your experience on Wednesday, April 16 when "The Visitor" is screened for free at Boston's Regal Fenway (7 PM; 201 Brookline Ave., near Fenway T stop). To make sure you are assured of a seat, email jmathews@alliedadvpub.com, call (617) 425-8930, or just plan to be there early.

How can I vouch in such positive terms for a film that has yet to be released? Last night I introduced it on behalf of the ACLU of Massachusetts at another special screening at Coolidge Corner, and afterwards moderated a discussion with the audience and the film's convincing lead actor, Richard Jenkins, of "Six Feet Under" fame. The ACLU is involved because Participant Media, one of the film's producers, has launched a consciousness-raising campaign around the film, taking on one of our most poorly understood issues, the rights of immigrants.

I don't want to give the story away. Suffice it to say that if you don't know much about the detention and deportation polices of the Bureau of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), director Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent") provides the basics in "The Visitor." The film bridges the gap between "them" and "us" with such sweet grace that it can be a great conversation-starter, judging from last night's lively Coolidge Corner discussion.

So plan to visit "The Visitor" when it is shown in Boston on April 16 – and then work with us to restore fairness and humanity to our immigration system.

Nancy Murray
Director of Education
ACLU of Massachusetts

Exposure: The woman behind the camera at Abu Ghraib

One of the speakers at our annual Bill of Rights Dinner this year will be Errol Morris, director of the Berlin Film Festival prize-winning film, S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure. In this film, Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of prisoners at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.

In last week's New Yorker, Morris has co-written a long, fascinating article about Specialist Sabrina Harman, the soldier who took many of the infamous photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. It's about what conditions were like and why she did what she did.

Best Documentary: Taxi to the Dark Side

About a billion people watching the Academy Awards heard filmmaker Alex Gibney dedicate his Oscar to Dilawar, the taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. interrogators at Bagram. Taxi to the Dark Side uses this horrific incident to detail U.S. torture policy and its effects.  As A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times, "A year from now, the presidency of George W. Bush will end, but the consequences of Mr. Bush’s policies and the arguments about them are likely to be with us for a long time. As next Jan. 20 draws near, there is an evident temptation, among many journalists as well as politicians seeking to replace Mr. Bush, to close the book and move ahead, an impulse that makes the existence of documentaries like Alex Gibney’s 'Taxi to the Dark Side' all the more vital. If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential."

Film: Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi was a young girl during the Iranian Revolution, and her crisp animated film Persepolis -- which has been playing for a few weeks now in places like Cambridge, Worcester, and Northampton -- tells her story.

High hopes for more freedom after the fall of the Shah were simply replaced with other forms of repression. Satrapi leaves Iran for Europe, twice, to escape the war with Iraq during the '80s and then the strictures of Iran's fundamentalist government, but the story of the film seems to be that you can never fully escape political upheaval and the denial of basic liberties in an entire country.

Persepolis is a black-and-white film, but its politics aren't. It's an unflattering look at Iran, but it doesn't let the U.S. off the hook either. Among other things, the film illustrates the role the U.S. played in inspiring the Iranian Revolution (the Shah's hated torturers had CIA training), and the repression of fundamentalist Iran is a warning about where the downward spiral of denying basic liberties can lead -- in any country.

Film: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days is not a feel-good film, but it does a beautiful job showing what it means to be unable to choose a legal abortion. Set in Romania before the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, it's a literally unflinching look at what a pregnant college student and a friend go through in the course of a single day to get help that's against the law.

I saw it with friends last weekend at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, where it's still playing. We kept thinking and talking about it for days.

Torture: Where’s the Outrage?

A few years ago I picked up an ACLU bumper sticker printed with this question. After years of reading about renditions, Guantanamo, “stress positions,” waterboarding, etc., I feel more ashamed than outraged. Taxi to the Dark Side is a new film that chronicles our government’s role as torturer and could help to spark some much-needed outrage. The Boston Globe’s film critic characterized it as a “military-torture documentary.” (One line of the review certainly resonated: “Cabalistic government doings always freak me out....”) I don’t think I can handle watching more than the trailer, so if you see the film, please leave a comment.