The Reckoning -- Interview with Director Pamela Yates

A few weeks ago, I saw the New York premier of The Reckoning at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. The crowd was quite astonishing. Two of the International Criminal Court prosecutors featured in the film, Christine Chung and Fatou Bensouda, were in attendance. The top brass from Human Rights Watch were also present along with a prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials. When Pamela Yates, the director, introduced him he received a standing ovation.

The film was stark and penetrating. It discussed the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity of our time, but did so in a rational, rights based justice context. The main character in The Reckoning is the International Criminal Court itself. Founded in 2002, its mandate is to try the perpetrators of crimes that have been committed since the court's inception. A stipulation exists that the court may only make cases against member states, unless the UN Security Council has referred them to mount an investigation.

The ICC is based on a treaty, when a country signs on to the treaty, it formalizes its stand against impunity, and renders its citizens eligible for potential investigation. However, the process requires the court to be a last resort only applied if a country proves unable or unwilling to try its own perpetrators. Over 100 countries have signed on to the treaty, but the United States, China, Russia, and Iraq have all refused to do so.

Since its founding the ICC has made cases against the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, war lords in the Congo and the people with the most responsibility for the Darfur genocide, including Al-Bashir, the president of Sudan. They have also built a preliminary case in Columbia against paramilitary leaders and the corrupt members of government who support them.

Beyond simply detailing the court's process, The Reckoning provides a compelling portrait of those who wage the struggle for global justice. I caught up with director Pamela Yates to discuss the film, which will screen tomorrow on POV.

Robyn Hillman-Harrigan: Hi Pamela, first of all I'd like to thank you for the important work that your film does. Shifting perceptions and educating people about Human Rights advocacy is vital. What exactly sparked you to engage with the topic of the International Criminal Court and how did you gain so much access to the subjects in the film?

Pamela Yates: The idea for The Reckoning came to me in a remote village high in the Peruvian Andes, while shooting my last film, State of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism. The film is based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One of the truth commissioners told me that he had formerly worked at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) trying to establish the first permanent, international court to try perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It was 2002 and the ICC was just beginning. I was fascinated that 120 countries had come together to build this new court, and that most of the world was not even aware of its existence.

Access is a matter of time and trust. It took us 3 years, across 4 continents to get the story of The Reckoning just right. We had the time to build relationships and we even made 2 short prequels to The Reckoning, which are on the web called Demons and Dreamers and Building Justice. This proved that we were serious about artistically communicating ideas of international justice.

We also invited outreach partners to join our Board of Advisers during the making of The Reckoning -- like Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Transitional Justice, Amnesty International and Facing History and Ourselves -- because ideas about transitional justice and human rights can be quite complex and we needed their expertise. This gained us respect with the ICC. The other factor was that the prosecutor and his team saw us going into conflict zones to try to film the scenes of the alleged crimes that they were prosecuting. This gave us common ground.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo

Robyn: Some people are not aware of the role the International Criminal Court plays, your film gives a great overview, but could you discuss further the formation of the court back in 2002? How did it came into being and what opposition has it faced?

Pamela: We are actually producing short educational modules to address this question from additional material that we filmed, and the first 2 will be up on the web for our national PBS broadcast on July 14, 2009.

Because there is an untold story of the role of civil society, non-governmental organizations from around the world who worked tirelessly for years preparing for the Rome Conference where the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC was affirmed by 120 countries in 1998. Even for the creators, it was thought that it would take another 10 years before at least 60 countries would ratify the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court could come into existence. But again, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court swung into action and within 4 years 66 countries had ratified the Statute and the ICC was born. That day, July 17th, has now been officially named International Justice Day.

Robyn: Can you speak a bit about what your involvement with the Human Rights Watch film festival has been over the years and about the festival in general?

Pamela: For the kinds of films I make, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, is the pinnacle. Because it combines human rights storytelling with a keen eye for cinema. And the festival programmers carefully choose the films from around the world with that criteria. Beyond the festival itself, people around the country and the world look at their selection on their website for ideas to program and broadcast compelling films. And in the past 20 years since the festival began, dozens of human rights film festivals have sprung up around the globe who have been inspired by their example and who have formed the Human Rights Film Network.

This is our 4th film in 20 years at the festival.

Robyn: The early opposition the ICC received from the U.S. government under Bush is touched upon in the film. Can you elaborate on how they sought to pressure other countries not to join? Additionally, could you clarify the process of being tried by the court? Only citizens of member states can be prosecuted, without a referral from the UN Security Council, correct?

Pamela: In The Reckoning we explore the 2 ways the United States has related to the ICC. One is the multilateralist approach, that celebrates our 200 years of jurisprudence and recognizes the US contribution in the writing of the Rome Statute as well as the US contribution to international justice from Nuremberg though the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals. The other, is the unilateralist approach articulated in The Reckoning by Bush's former UN Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton unabashedly states that the US should fight the Court, by actively convincing other countries to sign side deals with the US, like the Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIAs).

There are 3 ways a case can be initiated: A member country that is unable or unwilling to try suspects can refer the case to the ICC (as in Uganda, the Congo and the Central African Republic); the Prosecutor can open a case independently as long as the crimes occurred in a member state or by a national of a member state (this has not happened yet); and finally the UN Security Council can refer a case in a country that is not a state party to the ICC (as in Sudan).

Robyn: The ICC has boldly put out an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan because of his role in the Darfur genocide. Do you think it will lead to his eventual arrest, and is it likely that ICC's enforcement abilities will improve?

Pamela: Having no police force or way to arrest perpetrators of these grave crimes is a recognized weakness of the ICC. So the international community must decide how this aspect can be strengthened. At the ICC review conference in 2010 in Kampala I'm sure this will be high on the agenda.

Twelve ICC arrest warrants and one summons have been issued to date, 4 people are in custody in The Hague, the first trial is underway. And the arrest warrant for the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir has thrust the Court onto the world stage. When I began The Reckoning, I thought the film was going to be about arrests and trials, but I gradually came to understand that the real story was the effect the ICC was having in the world. The ICC has loudly declared that no one is above the law and the world is taking note.

Robyn: The Reckoning depicts some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity, but does so in a way that allows audiences to rationally understand the history, while also emotionally grasping the tragedy. How did you achieve this balance?

Former Child Soldiers

Pamela: I worked with editor Peter Kinoy and Producer Paco de Onís to make a film for general audiences both here and abroad who had never heard of the ICC. Peter was brilliant about how to fashion the narrative around the essentials of international justice, while consistently hooking the audience by telling at times a hopeful story, at times a harrowing one.

I insist on working with all the filmic tools -- carefully thought out cinematography that is beautiful, sad, epic; unifying music throughout the film that captures the emotional highs and
lows, well written narration spoken by a soulful narrator, and always an emphasis on the victims and survivors at the center of this justice initiative. I believe that the most beautiful panorama of cinema is the geography of the human face, which is why there are so many close ups of faces in all my films.

The audience feels like they are watching a movie rather than a news report, and I always show a way forward because I am an idealist. So while there may not be a happy ending, there
is a bittersweet ending.

Robyn: How does The Reckoning tie in with your past film projects, and where in this framework will your next film fit? Can you give us a preview of what's to come?

Pamela: State of Fear (2005) was about the Peruvian Truth Commission. TRUTH. The Reckoning (2009) is about the International Criminal Court. JUSTICE. and to come will be a film about historical and collective memory titled The Future of Memories. MEMORY. So this is actually a trilogy: TRUTH, JUSTICE, MEMORY.

Right now I'm finishing a new film which is the sequel to the very first film I made, When the Mountains Tremble (1983). When the Mountains Tremble is a film about social revolution in Guatemala in 1982, when the state rose up and committed genocide, killing 200,000 mostly Mayan Indians. Arrest warrants have been issued to 6 Guatemalan generals and police officials, 2 of whom are in my original film. The prosecution has asked us to go back into all our filmic outtakes from Mountains to be used as forensic evidence in the genocide case being tried at the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, the same court that had Pinochet detained in London in 1998. In another eerie twist of fate, the storyteller in Mountains was Rigoberta Menchú , the Nobel Peace Laureate.

It was Rigoberta that brought the case to the Spanish Audiencia Nacional . So there characters that travel across 25 years of Guatemalan history to tell a multi-generational story. I will also explore how documentary filmmaking makes a difference, so it's meant to inspire emerging filmmakers to get interested in human rights themes. The new film is called Granito -- the tiny grain of sand we can each contribute.

Robyn: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Pamela: I would like people to know that The Reckoning is a political thriller about international crime and punishment. And after 90 minutes on the edge, you will have learned a huge amount about an inspiring and hopeful new global justice institution. But the ICC is a beleaguered institution that needs our help. And as global citizens we can join in the conversation, engage in the debate only when we are informed. And that's why we've also conceived a 3 year audience engagement and outreach campaign so that The Reckoning can be the flagship film, and by taking people on an emotional odyssey can then lead them to get involved with the international justice movement. Check out our outreach campaign at international justice central.

I also want to say that I work with a team of people, Paco de Onís, the Producer and Peter Kinoy, the editor. The Reckoning is a film by the 3 of us because we conceive of the ideas together and work from conception through the outreach phase, contributing. Peter and I founded Skylight Pictures more than 25 years ago with a focus on making films about human rights and the quest for justice.

Robyn: Thank you very much for your time.

Follow Robyn Hillman-Harrigan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BSRobyn

Comments

[FindingTruth]

For war crimes in Uganda you have a wide range of picks, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented many crimes and some brave writers have stood up and detailed some of the horrors. Many feel Joseph Kony and President Yoweri Museveni ought to share a cell at the Hague.

Forced displacement of people for over 10 years for most was an effective mechanism for causing mass deaths in northern Uganda.

An exhibit: http://socialdocumentary.net/exhibit/Mike_Odongkara/439

An article: http://www.friendsforpeaceinafrica.org/documents/18/236-notes-on-the-legacy-of-forced-displacement-adam-branch-on-n-ugandan-camps-fpa-conference.html

Unfortunately there are no concrete numbers for deaths, but studies consistently pointed to high death rates due to factors outside of the shooting war. This concept of impunity Moreno-Ocampo explains so well in The Reckoning can be applied to Uganda and its leadership quite well.

Through the eyes of one survivor who first experienced violence in 1987:
Scapegoats of a bloodied land: From peace to war in Northern Uganda
http://ugandagenocide.info/?p=63

This is to say nothing about war crimes in the Congo, which included mass rapes and looting. Uganda has already been indicted for this by the International Court of Justice, and there is plenty of evidence for it, but the world's turning a blind eye.

[icelink]

The ICC has some potential, but fails in implementation. In Uganda the ICC has shown utter bias in its investigations of only LRA, but turned a blind eye to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Museveni Government and its UPDF army. The ICC must know that the people of northern Uganda were forced at gunpoint by the UPDF into abominable conditions of the IDP camps where they were left to die by the thousands from preventable diseases. Over 1000 deaths per week from grossly unsanitary conditions, lack of access to clean water, societal structures destroyed, wretched overcrowding beyond description. They were shot dead if they wandered from the perimeters of the camps to forage food, mothers with babies strapped to their backs!
The Government of Uganda failed to PROTECT the citizens of the north! Impending attacks? The UPDF fled, or used the people as human shields. Government and army elites became obscenely wealthy from the business of war, and plunder. NEVER did Museveni ask for outside assistance. Money donated for relief was skimmed or disappeared into the deep pockets of the political and military elites.

He did not use the donor funds already given for the Peace and Recovery Plan(PRDP) to begin rebuilding the north. He stopped the plan a year ago and is only now beginning to talk about implementation with pressure from donors .

All this leads one to question the obvious bias of the ICC when it indicts only Kony and his top

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for your comment. I can definitely see the contradictions here. Do you still feel that the ICC is better than no ICC at all, despite the clear improvements that it need to make in its policy and practice?

[curiosiT]

Uganda is of 2 minds on the ICC. Just read today's Daily Monitor.."In less than a week, a series of conflicting positions have been expressed by the Ugandan government on whether it would arrest Mr Bashir. Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa said at the weekend that Uganda was bound by the decision in Sirte, Libya this month by the African Union not to effect the ICC arrest warrants.

But after Mr Ocampo arrived at the weekend, Mr Henry Okello Oryem, the junior foreign affairs minister, said the Uganda Police would be obliged to effect a warrant of arrest from the court already in government hands."

The US has meanwhile begun funding a War Crimes Court in Uganda, an effort that began last May. Perhaps that is because we don't support the ICC. But the people in Northern Uganda wonder whose justice will be served...as currently the ICC only put out arrest warrants for the top officers in the LRA.
Also the LRA Disarmament Bill in Congressional committee seems to indicate the US position to effect a militaristic solution, by chasing Kony once again, while funding humanitarian aid.

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for your comment. Do you think that a militaristic "solution" could possibly yield positive results. Wouldn't out and out war render another huge blow against the people of the country?

What do you think the likelihood of an al-Bashir arrest is?

[Milton Allimadi]

In 2005 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which deals with civil aspect found Uganda liable for massacres, pillage and essentiallly war crimes and crimes against humanity in DR Congo during its 1997-2003 occupation. According to a June 8, 2006 Wall Street Journal , separately, the ICC has also been investigating the same alleged crimes. How then could Moreno-Ocampo fraternize with Uganda's president, who could presumably be criminally indicted for crimes that the ICJ has already ruled Uganda liable for and awarded DR Congo $10 billion compensation?
Please see link to ICJ ruling http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf and details of Uganda's DR Congo atrocities

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this. It makes perfect sense why fraternization with the Ugandan government would be offensive. I think that unfortunately the ICC's mandate requires it to first try to get the government to cooperate and then if it refuses to go after it. Perhaps similar to how they have targeted the government of Sudan. Do you think that all diplomacy with the government of Uganda should be suspended?

[godlessliberal]

Great interview. It's sad, a story about Sarah Palin can garner up to a thousand comments but a film about the International Criminal Court has one lonely comment, it speaks volumes about our priorities as a collective people. I, for one, am looking forward to watching this film to get a better understanding of the kinks that still need to be worked out within the court and why our governement refuses to sign on as a member state.

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, I'm glad the post has sparked your interest in the ICC. It is such significant work, quietly being hacked away at in the Hague and I agree that more of us should know about the court and our countries opposition to it.

[FindingTruth]

As a member of one of the communities that has dealt with the aftermath of ICC indictments -- the ICC has a long way to go in terms of implementation. Especially in Uganda, we've witnessed a lot of double standards. The Ugandan President and Moreno-Ocampo attended a press conference together to announce the arrest warrants.

After seeing that, it was clear there would be no accountability or justice for crimes the Ugandan government had committed either in Congo or Uganda. Justice is a two-way street. This is one are the ICC must work on in order to garner popular support.

A couple of interesting articles:

Waiting for Bashir: http://ugandagenocide.info/?p=1527

The ICC is a Western Tool But Can Be Improved: http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/5828/2009-07-01.html

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi, thank you for your comment. Yours is an important perspective, could you tell us more about how the ICC is experienced on the ground in Uganda? The film definitely delves into the criticisms the court has received from African member states and their citizens. What do you see as the way forward?

[FindingTruth]

Thanks for the questions.

For many, the experience of the ICC in Uganda has been tinged with a lot of contradictions and confusion. People can see the government using the ICC when it is convenient, to garner international support, but the law has not been applied to the government itself.

(Right now, Uganda is presiding over the UN Security Council, and ICC prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo is in Uganda to convince Ugandan officials to arrest Sudan’s Al-Bashir, who will be visiting later in the month… in 2010 the ICC review conference will be in Uganda – these facts alone bring up many contradictions.)

There is a national Amnesty Act for former rebels -- this adds to the confusion of whether ICC law or Amnesty will be applied. A war crimes court is another confusing option.

Direct communication with the ICC has been difficult. Victims have written the court to raise issues of systematic government abuse but have received little response from the court. Meanwhile, the Court is spending money to “sensitize” victim communities about their rights.

[FindingTruth]

(Continued Thoughts)

Many people see the court as a walking contradiction. I have a relative who is a member of the Ugandan army - he said the investigators were only interested in interviewing child soldiers. He raised the question of how truthful the child soldiers might have been, due to army presence.

Most people are afraid to speak too loudly about the history of serious human rights violations by the government. (It was stunning to see the people in the film speaking out.)

From a survivor perspective, the crimes of the government are worse than those of the LRA, yet it is only the LRA’s crimes that are being addressed. This is where the ICC's lack of effectiveness is most apparent.

Amnesty International Report: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/09/19/uprooted-and-forgotten

Many politicians and civil society groups who have raised issues of justice around the LRA issue have been targeted for intimidation by the government – the conversation in Uganda around the ICC/LRA/Justice is far from free.

The way forward in Uganda: interpret the ICC Statute as it is written and aid the Chief Prosecutor in neutrally applying the law to both sides. The Court also must recognize that governments do not have the ability to try themselves!

The other issue is execution of the warrants. Perhaps the warrants need not be made public? The court's current system of relying on member countries for arrests hasn't been successful.

[Robyn Hillman-Harrigan - Huffpost Blogger]

Wow, thanks again.You offer some critical insights on the issue of government corruption­/complicit­y/co-opera­tion. The ICC is in that challenging position of having to rely on the government's support, but of, as you say, also being responsible for taking it to task for its own crimes against the people. Can you elaborate more on how the government's crimes are worse than those committed by the LRA?