New York City Film Showing: "The Reckoning"

I'm pleased to help announce the Culture Project's second ”Blueprint For Accountability” installment. The following is adapted from the press release:

New York, NY, July 22, 2009 -- Culture Project has announced a special screening of The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court as part of its Blueprint for Accountability series. The film will be screened Tuesday, August 4, at Judson Church, 55 Washington Square South (corner of Thompson) at 7pm, followed by a talkback exploring the struggle and necessity of holding perpetrators of crimes against humanity— however powerful or concealed they may be — accountable. Tickets are $15.

The Reckoning, directed by veteran filmmaker Pamela Yates, opened the Human Rights Watch festival in New York this year, and follows dynamic International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and his team for 3 years across 4 continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur, challenging the UN Security Council to arrest him. The Prosecutor has a mandate but no police force. At every turn, he must pressure the international community to muster political will for the cause.

An official selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, The Reckoning documents this tiny court’s struggle to change the world and forge a paradigm shift for international justice. Will the Prosecutor succeed? Do world leaders have the political will to fulfill this new Court’s mandate and ensure that justice prevails?

Variety called the film “a potent argument for the Obama administration's move from isolationism to diplomacy.” The post-performance talkback will include a focus on the United States’ role in the ICC, why it is important for the United States to join, and how we, as citizens, can pressure the administration to cooperate with the ICC. Participants include Pamela Yates, and Paul Van Zyl, co-founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice, who will moderate.

Culture Project’s screening of The Reckoning follows the groundbreaking launch of the Blueprint for Accountability series on May 31 with Rachel Maddow, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Ron Suskind and Vince Warren. The evening made breaking news on major news stations including MSNBC and CNN when Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top coalition commander in Iraq, called for a Truth Commission - the first General from the Iraq theater to go on record to do so.

Culture Project’s Blueprint for Accountability series gathers the world’s foremost political and journalistic experts and today’s most visionary artists in the worlds of theater, music, film, dance, and literature to spotlight tangible ways to reintroduce accountability into our culture. Topics for future evenings in the series include domestic terrorism, economic injustice, human trafficking, Hurricane Katrina, and corporate media.

I'm not in New York, but if I were I would definitely try and make this film screening. I'm sure it will be a fascinating evening.