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Ask “The Reckoning” filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis
This week, independent film series P.O.V. features “The Reckoning” (check local listings), a documentary about the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) efforts to try the perpetrators of genocide.
Director Pamela Yates explains that when she and producer Paco de Onis set out to tell a story about the ICC, she thought it would be a film about “the ICC’s cases and trials, like any good crime thriller.” The finished documentary, an official selection at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, does center on the efforts of chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team as they seek justice for the victims of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Shortly after filming began, however, the filmmakers realized there was a larger story to tell about the ICC, including the Court’s short history (it was established in 2002), as well as its impact on the world, and perspectives on its future.
“The Reckoning” is likely to spark a number of questions about the Court and the specific cases featured in the film. Leave your questions for Yates and de Onis below and I’ll choose five for them to answer. Check back next week for their responses.
For more information about the film, visit the POV website.
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About The Shows
Dear PBS Engage,
Your shows are fantastic. I try to watch them everyday on KOPB Portland, Oregon and PBS Kids Sprout. I like your web site. Do you want to know what KOPB stands for? It stands for Oregon Public Broadcasting. Hope you're doing well.
The Reckoning
Extremely clear and interesting to present the ICC .
The majority of the people are not aware of the ICC.
More must be done to make people aware of it.
What can I do to help?
What can I do?
Hi Franco,
One of the main inspirations for making "The Reckoning" is precisely your point----the majority of people are not aware of the ICC.
There is so much you can do beginning with letting your friends, family and colleagues know about the International Criminal Court via "The Reckoning", which can be streamed free from the POV website
Please let them know that this is an 82 minute primer on the ICC, and the story unravels as a political thriller about international crime an punishment. By the end of the film, they will know a whole lot more about international justice and we'll take them inside the Office of the Prosecutor as the investigators uncover crimes and go after the perpetrators.
You will be doing a lot, if you can just get more people to engage in the discussion about the Court and ask their elected representatives, "Why aren't we members of the ICC"? "How can we reengage with the ICC?"
There is a discussion guides on the POV website
AND
We've created a portal
ijcentral(dot)org where you can join the already vibrant movement around the globe for international justice. I've found that this is the best place to find out more about the ICC (we have weekly summaries of the Thomas Lubanga trial) and most IJ breaking news, breaks here first.
More you can do for raising awareness of the ICC
I just want to add that another action you can take is to host a screening of The Reckoning with a free screening kit available from POV, by going to this link: http://www.amdoc.org/outreach/events/register.php
The Reckoning
Just caught the last fifteen minutes of The Reckoning. I will have to catch up on the rest. Russia, China, USA non-members.
last 15 minutes
Hi William
One of the greatest challenges in creating "The Reckoning" was how to tell this very complicated story---6 years, 3 continents, 6 languages and a myriad of interesting people driving the notion of an international criminal court forward. So we decided to tell it from the point-of-view of the ICC,take the audience behind the scenes and show how cases are developed, why, and how very difficult it is, how the Court is beleaguered. "The Reckoning" falls into very natural chapters, so if you only saw the last 15 minutes, you'll get a sense of the excitement of the story, but you'll have to go back and watch the beginning---which you can do cause the film can be streamed for free on the POV website.
You can also buy a DVD of the Director's cut, with 15 additional minutes at www(dot)thereckoningfilm(dot)com
streaming The Reckoning
Dear Pamela: I could not find how to stream the video from the POV website. I've found the trailer available online, but not the documentary itself. Any advice? I want to show the film to my International Human Rights high school class, but would like to see if myself first.
Thanks in advance! I've been a fan of your films since ""When the Mountains Tremble"...
Free streaming of The Reckoning
Dear Anne
The streaming thing is not that straightforward, you have to click on The Reckoning POV home page down on the left hand side in blue there is an option that says "Watch the Film online"
But you can just go to
http:/www.pbs.org/pov/reckoning/watch_the_film.php
and voila!
We have educational modules now streaming online that we specifically developed for high school classes in conjunction with POV and Facing History and Ourselves.
They are 12-15 minutes, perfect for high school classes. The first one is about the creation of the ICC, the 2nd about Darfur, and stay tuned for the 3rd about Peace and Justice.
You might like to know that our next film is a sequel to "When the Mountains Tremble". It's called "Granito"---the tiny grain of sand we can each contribute. The trailer is on our YouTube Channel, skypix.
The Reckoning
What can be done to make more people aware of what is happening in Darfur? Will the perpetrators ever be brought to trial and held responsible for their actions? I only caught the last 10 min of your show, please send information on what I can do to help spread the word of genocide.
thanks
Get involved with the international justice movement
Teresa, you can watch the entire film online at the POV page for The Reckoning at the Watch the Film Online link, and you can get involved and join the international justice movement at IJCentral.org - we hope you join us!
'The Reckoning'
I spent the evening watching this program, thank God for PBS. I intend on watching again online.
It breaks my heart and yet makes me mad as h*ll that countries will still tolerate the injustices that are daily common practices for some countries.
The World cried foul when genocide took place under the regimes responsible during WWII, and then we turn a blind eye to the injustices that have followed since.
I understand why the Bush era would not to join the ICC, forgive me, but I love my country but we allow to much in the name of progress, especially if those at the head of the table are up to no good themselves.
Why has not the Obama administration,looked into considering joining the ICC? does the U.N. actually work or are we all just being jacked off politely by these World leaders?
If the victims were closer to there own families, perhaps then they would react more with some sense of urgency.
Darfur is only one of many atrocities that is unforgivable, the Sudanese know this and yet they propagate it.
When will it all end, hunger,mass pandemics,genocide,trafficking,or could what I was told years ago the only truth.
There is Justice in this World and then there is Just Us.
RK McLean
How it Ends
RK, it will end when there is a popular grass roots movement that demands action from our leaders. Come join the international justice movement at http://ijcentral.org
the reckoning
it is very interesting and it can greatly help aware the people regarding genocide...keep it up!
The reckoning
very interesting...
Darfur
I don't know how to begin to express my disgust about what has happened in Darfur. My emotions are raging and wishing that I could make a difference other than letting other people know about what's happening over there. Ugh! All I can say for now is that what has happened in this country is UNFORGIVABLE.
Thank you for PBS!
Channel your emotions into positive action!
Don't feel powerless - you can make a difference. Come join the international justice movement at http:IJCentral.org and start by sending a message to President Obama to Support the Court.
The Reckoning
The film shows that in order to try those most responsible for massive criminal action, participants lower on the chain of command are offered immunity for information. Could court investigations be useful in the set up of truth and reconciliation committees, so that at least there is full disclosure of crimes committed if not prosecution?
Truth and Reconciliation, and Justice
Iffat, this is a good question. In Uganda the pressure exerted by the arrest warrants that the ICC issued for the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has spurred a movement by local civil society groups to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to examine the 20-year war between the government of Uganda and the LRA. This won't make the arrest warrants go away, but if it is a credible TRC that examines all actors in the conflict, it should go a long way toward resolving long-standing tensions between northern and southern Uganda (the ICC jurisdiction begins from the year it was launched, 2002, so it can't prosecute crimes committed before that, when many of the alleged government atrocities were committed). Even though TRC's usually don't have prosecution powers of their own, the facts that they uncover can be used in a national trial. In the case of the Peruvian TRC, which examined the 20-year conflict between the government of Peru and the Shining Path insurgency, they made recommendations for cases that should be prosecuted by Peru's national justice system, and many of the TRC's findings were used in the recent trial of ex-President Alberto Fujimori, which led to his conviction for human rights crimes. To stay abreast of developments with the ICC and international justice generally, I encourage you to visit IJCentral at http://ijcentral.org
The Reckoning
This is in response to Teresa's comment about how to get more involved with ending genocide in Darur. I'm involved with the SAVE DARFUR COALITION. www.savedarfur.org I actively and financially support efforts to petition legislators, Senators even sent letters to Obama myself pleading for the US to actively get involved in ending the genocide. If you want to get involved, please check out this website. These people desperately need our help. We CANNOT turn our backs on them. Thanks for posting the comment and caring enough to take action.
Sincerely,
Kelly Lee
Aliso Viejo, CA
Take action
Hi Kelly - you are so right, and I don't know if you're aware that SaveDarfur is one of the outreach partners of IJCentral (http://IJCentral.org) and The Reckoning (http://www.skylightpictures.com). It would be really great if you could extend the impact of The Reckoning by hosting screenings in your area (and at other SaveDarfur chapters around the country). You can get free screening kit from POV by registering at their Community Network site: http://www.amdoc.org/outreach/events/register.php
Film Subject
As a filmmaker, what was it about this particular topic that interested you? Obviously the genocide in Darfur is atrocious and the world should know what has gone on there but was there something else that specifically drew you to this subject?
Thank you PBS Engage for such important features.
A Way Forward
Sara, As a human rights filmmaker I saw that the idea of this new Court as a very hopefully sign that there was a way forward. Of course it's a quixotic odyssey to think that the International Criminal Court can bring peace and security to the world, but as Richard Goldstone says, "If we didn't take big risks, we'd still all be living in caves. And in this idea, this risk that 120 countries took when they wrote and signed The Rome Statute, that we dare create a better world. And I thought, therein lies the seeds for a very interesting film dramatically told.
Darfur true lie's
Darfur is a hot issue every one talks about it , some do say the truth and the majority don’t , they actually keep publicizing the issue as if they know it all and no one ells do .
Will am a Sudanese person who lived out and never visited Sudan for a long time ,and since am a Sudanese I was flowing this issue and educating my self about it from the media ( the western media that is) I actually exposed my self to it and I believed it all , and I did not like it .
Will let me tell you this after a long time now am back in Sudan and honestly I though I was going to find war in the street killing every where government Jan jawed chasing every one all over , isn’t that what the western media was feeding all of us? Exactly will I visited Darfur Alfashir, Aljenina, and Neyala and I actually met the governor of Darfur personally and I have seen nothing of what the western media was talking about ! it was all Lie’s .. will not all of it.
I forgot to tell you that I wanted to come back to Sudan and actually help my people and try with the others to end there suffering and I was determent but the lies transformed me changed me and I really did ask my self why do the western media will do such a thing why and I did not have to think far , the same media that publicized the WMD of IRAQ and justified Bush’s WAR it’s the same media that talking about Darfur and in IRAQ it was WMD and oil and in Darfur its oil and
Menrals such as Uranum and to get it many more will die.
After all guys if we did not act now and stop these lie’s another 1000000 people will die in sudn like IRAQ
Is the Darfur crisis a lie?
Sean, are you seriously suggesting that the Darfur crisis is a lie generated by Western media? That over a million displaced Darfuris in decrepit camps are a lie? We have met many Darfuris in the course of making The Reckoning, and at screenings since it's release, and they are clamoring for the International Criminal Court to get Sudan's President al-Bashir behind bars. This is the man who also commanded the war with Southern Sudan (2 million dead) and gave safe haven and arms and money to the LRA while they conducted their campaign of terror on the Acholi people of northern Uganda. Do you think that those were lies too? The situation of calm that you saw in Darfur is because so much of the population has already been killed or displaced.
al igual que en mi país...
Cuando llegará el momento de juzgar a quienes con toda la ventaja de estar en una posición de poder. Se dieron a la tarea de aplicar la política de tierra arrasada, aquí en Guatemala, en éste país tan chiquito pero de mucho sufrimiento.
Gracias Pamela, Paco y Peter, por su trabajo.
Y el caso de Darfur es gran reto, cómo el de Guatemala, para la Justicia Internacional.
The Reckoning en español
Mil gracias, Bea
Pronto, vamos a tener la versión en español de "The Reckoning" (en español se llama "La Batalla por La Corte Penal Internacional. Espero que lo podemos utilizar en Guatemala para amplificar la conversación sobre justicia internacional y domestica.