Meet the DocuWeek Filmmakers--Alex Gibney: 'Taxi to the Darkside'

Over the next couple of weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work will be represented in the DocuWeek^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, August 17-23. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.
So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Alex Gibney, director/producer of Taxi to the Darkside.

Synopsis: Taxi to the Darkside examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram Air Base from injuries inflicted by US soldiers. In an unflinching look at the Bush administration's policy on torture, filmmaker Alex Gibney takes us from a village in Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay and straight to the White House.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Alex Gibney: The lines for investment banker and corporate lawyer were too long...

IDA: What inspired you to make Taxi to the Darkside?

AG:. Fury over the way the Bush administration had transgressed our most fundamental values. I was also encouraged--and inspired--to do the film by my father, who had been a Naval interrogator in World War II. Despite what the Japanese had done to some American soldiers, my father and his fellow interrogators--trying to get intelligence during some of the bloodiest battles of the war--took pride in the fact that they didn't even think about torturing anyone in order to get "actionable intelligence." In World War II, the military interrogators believed they were fighting to preserve the rule of law, not to undermine it, as the Bush administration has done. Also, unlike most of the interrogators in the war on terror, the WWII interrogators had actually been trained to speak the language of the prisoners they were interrogating. They obtained more accurate intelligence and endorsed, through their actions, the fundamental values of a respect for the rule of law and basic human rights.
Years later, in Tokyo, my father would take me out for sake with a few of his former prisoners. It's hard to imagine that happening 10 years from now with former detainees from Bagram, Guantanamo or the secret rendition sites. This is not to say that the job of the interrogator is to be friends with his/her prisoners. But it's hard to know how it makes us safer to make hundreds of thousands of new enemies by treating detainees--who may or may not be guilty of anything--as less than human.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

AG: The biggest challenge--as it always is in a film like this--is access. It took us a long time to get guards, interrogators and former public officials to agree to talk to us.
It was not easy to shoot in Afghanistan, where we opted for an extremely low-profile approach. The military refused us access to the military base at Bagram. We were allowed into Guantanamo, though; the challenge there was very different. By the time we arrived, in early 2006, the military had turned Guantanamo into a kind of detention "theme park." Guantanamo-based soldiers, who took their orders from private contractors from Lockheed, had crafted a very slick tour that showed the basketball courts, the Ping-Pong tables, the food, the mini-hammocks for the Korans, etc. However, those well-rehearsed dog-and-pony shows did not permit access to two key constituencies: interrogators and prisoners.
Our solution to this problem was to turn the cameras back on the mechanics of the tour itself. By day, we would show our group of journalists being herded from place to place, listening to descriptions of "Prisoner Pepsi Night" and "Pizza Night" and buying hats and t-shirts at the Gitmo Gift Shop that read, "Guantanamo Bay Behavior Modification Instructor." At night, we would shoot interviews with the so-called "habeas lawyers" (attorneys for detainees), who let us know about the hunger strike that was taking place--despite the abundance of pizza and Pepsi--and the restraint chairs used to force-feed their clients

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

AG: Over the course of the making of the film, I became more and more interested in the attempts--through obfuscation, doublespeak and outright lies--to hide the systematic abuse. Slowly but surely, the film became more and more about corruption--corruption of the rule of law, American values and, ultimately, the human spirit. I also discovered that the most vociferous critics of the Bush administration's detention policies were bedrock Republicans and career military officers. It turned out that, in a fundamental way, the film wasn't political at all. It wasn't about traditional labels of "left and right." It was about right and wrong.

IDA: As you've screened Taxi to the Darkside--whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms--how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

AG: What has surprised, and delighted, me is that the film seems to inspire rage in viewers, but in a way that is, at heart, patriotic. Viewers seem angry that their country has been taken over by weak, reckless men who, in the name of fighting terror, have embraced the very values of our enemies.
I have also been impressed that audiences have a great sympathy for the soldiers in the film who were involved in the detainee abuse. The "bad apples" theory of history--embraced by Bush, Rumsfeld, et al--assumes that there are good people and bad people. Instead, it turns out that good soldiers are corrupted and scarred by bad policies. By ordering soldiers to commit acts that amount to torture--and prosecuting them for it when they're caught--we permanently scar their spirits. Viewers seem willing to hold the soldiers accountable for their actions, but understanding of the horrible and unjust position they have been put in by their commanders--including the Commander-in-Chief--who have absolved themselves of any responsibility.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

AG: Influences make themselves felt in unpredictable ways. Here are a few films and filmmakers that have influenced me (I think): Night and Fog, The Sorrow and the Pity, Gimme Shelter, The Thin Blue Line, Capturing the Friedmans, Why We Fight, Stop Making Sense, When We Were Kings, Sans Soleil, Grizzly Man, The Soul of a Man.
Marcel Ophuls is not much remembered any more, but he remains an inspiration to me. Son of the great fiction filmmaker Max Ophuls, Ophuls fils married the curiosity of the documentarian with the storytelling sense of a moviemaker. He wasn't a journalist, but he embraced the contradictions of life. I always remember (probably I misremember it) something he said: "My films always have a point of view. But my job is showing audiences how hard it was to come to that point of view."
I hate the idea of a documentary "rule book." I like filmmakers who break the "rules," but remain passionate about a commitment to finding a way to present a complex truth in a way that is entertaining and engaging to viewers.

Taxi to the Darkside will be screening at The LANDMARK.

To view the entire DocuWeek^TM program, visit http://www.documentary.org/programs/docuweek_07.php

To download and view the DocuWeek schedule at The LANDMARK, visit
http://www.documentary.org/programs/DW/2007/DocuWeek-2007_I-M.pdf

To purchase tickets to DocuWeek at The LANDMARK, visit
http://tickets.landmarktheatres.com