April 25, 2008
In his new film, “Standard Operating Procedure,” filmmaker Errol Morris explores one of the darkest chapters of recent history: the shocking photos that emerged from the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib four years ago. He explains to Kurt why those photos were not just documents of prisoner treatment, but staged tableaux.
Studio 360’s Lu Olkowski talked to artists (including painter Fernando Botero), writers, and a former soldier who have spent years trying to figure out what the Abu Ghraib photos really mean, and how seeing torture changes us.
Weigh in: The enduring impact of the Abu Ghraib photos?
They say “tragedy plus time equals comedy,” and another film opening this weekend takes unjustly imprisoned terror suspects as its focus. This one is a comedy about two bong-loving stoners: “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.” Arun Rath explains why Harold and Kumar have become underground heroes for respectable Asian-Americans.
When film critic David Gilmour's son Jesse was flunking out of school, he let him drop out -- on the condition that Jesse would watch movies with him. In his memoir, The Film Club, David describes the curriculum he devised. Father and son tell Kurt how it went.
Weigh in: Would you substitute a Film Club for high school?
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
