Synopsis
In December, 2001, Australian David Hicks was picked up in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance and handed over to the U.S military. Hicks was taken to the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for interrogation and has been held there- for the first two years in a tiny cage-like cell, and more lately in solitary confinement-ever since. Labelled an “unlawful combatant” by U.S. President George Bush, he is allowed none of the rights of ordinary prisoners-of-war. After several years charges were laid and Hicks appeared briefly before a Military Commission. This Military Commission was disbanded. There are plans to hold another Military Commission in 2007.
For the first two years in Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks had no access to a lawyer or his family. David Hicks has pleaded not guilty to war crimes before the Military Commission created by President George Bush. Both his civilian and military lawyers have protested against the Military Commission saying the Commission is inherently unfair. David Hicks alleges he has suffered abuse while in US custody. Since 2003, he has mostly been held in solitary confinement.
So how did a 26 year old, former stockman from Adelaide, end up as a Taliban fighter. The PRESIDENT VERSUS DAVID HICKS sets out to answer this question. The film follows the journey made by Terry Hicks, David’s father, as he traces his son’s footsteps in an attempt to find out what has happened to him. THE PRESIDENT VERSUS DAVID HICKS is a film about a man who cannot be seen or heard. A man who is locked in the legal limbo of Guantanamo Bay. And yet, through the strength and love of the father and through David’s own words, we come to know him, and begin to understand him.
Impact
The Director's Statement
The film was shown first by SBS and then in the U.S. on the Sundance Channel. It has since been shown in several other countries around the world. The film is often quoted in articles and websites discussing David Hicks. The film has helped to draw attention to the fact that David Hicks has been incarcerated in barbaric conditions without a trial for several years. I am convinced this film, along with Mori, helped change the climate of opinion about the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Its SBS screening made a lot of both ordinary and influential people think. Until that point I think a lot of people thought there was some kind of legal process going on that was respectable.
Social justice organizations such as Amnesty have held their own screenings in order to build support for their human rights campaigns for David Hicks and other prisoners in similar situations. Several people contacted me after the SBS screenings, asking what they could do to help David’s situation, and many of these have made donations to the various human rights organizations which have taken up his cause.
The film has been shown in several festivals including Hot Docs (Toronto), IDFA (Amsterdam) and Full Frame (U.S.). My feeling is that the film put an emotive subject into perspective, and allowed audiences to make up their own minds, rather than being bulldozed by the prejudices of politicians and some sections of the media, who have been prepared to condemn David without a trial. Our aim was to attempt to discover the truth about why David ended up in Guantanamo Bay. A story, which up until we made our film, had only been told in a sensationalist way. The President Versus David Hicks won the AFI Award for Best Documentary Film, and the Logi for Best Documentary Film.
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