The Response with Peter Riegert, Sig Libowitz and Dahlia Lithwick
Saturday, 1:00 pm, Regal Downtown #4
Director: Adam Rodgers
Writer: Sig Libowitz
Cinematographer: Richard Chisolm
Cast: Sig Libowitz, Peter Riegert
Running Time: 30 min
In Guantanamo, Cuba, three military judges hold a hearing (a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, or CSRT) to determine if a Pakistani detainee has been properly classified as an enemy combatant. Al-Aqar (Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show) has been a Gitmo prisoner for four years, and if his status is upheld, he can be detained indefinitely, and without further trial, until such time as the president declares otherwise.
Al-Aqar protests his innocence, but since he is not allowed to see the evidence against him because it has been classified, nor learn the name of his accuser, he finds it nearly impossible to defend himself. The three judges (Kate Mulgrew, Peter Riegert, and Sig Libowitz) must debate whether the evidence is enough to keep him in prison, possibly for the rest of his life.
The Response, produced by the University of Maryland School of Law and scripted from transcripts of actual CSRTs, closely examines the moral, political, and legal questions that arise from the USA’s ongoing War on Terror. As one of the judges remarks, “It is [not 9/11 but] the response that defines us.”
