ACADEMY: Disqualify Zero Dark Thirty

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UPDATE: New Campaign Live Online

Tell the Oscars:
contact@oscars.org

Dear Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences,

Zero Dark Thirty should be disqualified from receiving your awards on the basis that the filmmakers deliberately crafted false propaganda in the service of making illegal torture practices seem acceptable and productive. This deceitful twisting of the facts, coupled with special insider access to CIA sources, ties the filmmakers to the government in an unseemly and dishonest arrangement.

As the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has set the record straight and pointed out the glaring falsehoods presented in Zero Dark Thirty, and as this issue is of vital and current significance to the nation, the awarding of this deceitful film with your honors would confer on it an unacceptable legitimacy harmful to the rule of law and to justice in the United States. These are not trivial matters and have international significance. The awarding of top honors to propaganda films sends a message to the entire world on where America’s values truly stand.

This is a great responsibility of the Academy, and it should not attempt to divorce the artistry of a film from its ethical, moral and legal implications. Creating false dramatic situations that justify torture, while claiming to be based on true events, is unacceptable. Torture is a war crime punishable by 20 years incarceration or the death penalty if the victims die – as several have already done. Witness your own Award Winning Taxi to the Dark Side.

Original Version:

Dear Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences,

I am writing to inform you of my intention to create a campaign to disqualify the film Zero Dark Thirty from receiving your awards on the basis that the filmmakers deliberately crafted false propaganda in the service of making illegal torture practices seem acceptable and productive.

This deceitful twisting of the facts, coupled with special insider access to CIA sources, ties the filmmakers to the government in an unseemly and dishonest arrangement.  As the Senate Intelligence oversight committee has set the record straight and pointed out the falsehoods presented in the film, and as this issue is of vital and current significance to the nation, the awarding of this deceitful film your honors would confer on it an unacceptable legitimacy that can be harmful to the rule of law and to justice in the United States.  These are not trivial matters and have international significance.  The awarding of top honors to propaganda films sends a message to the entire world on where America’s values truly stand.  This is a great responsibility of the Academy, and it should not attempt to divorce the artistry of a film from its obvious political, ethical, moral and legal implications.  Creating false dramatic situations that justify torture is unacceptable, and torture is a war crime punishable by 20 years incarceration or the death penalty if the victims die — as several have done.

I hope to make an issue out of this disregard for the deceits contained within the film, and the Academy’s apparent condoning of this false historical propaganda.

Joe Giambrone

 

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