Standard Operating Procedure

About the Film

Is it possible for a photograph to change the world?

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) examines the context of the twelve notorious photographs from Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? Morris talks directly to the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs.  Who are these people?  What were they thinking? And the underlying question: how could American values become so compromised that Abu Ghraib—and the subsequent coverup—could happen?

View Film Site   |   ErrolMorris.com

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Gallery

The Photographs that Shamed America

In Standard Operating Procedure, filmmaker Errol Morris examines the context of the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs—how these photos exposed alleged U.S. violations of the Geneva Conventions in the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. They also served to scapegoat “a few bad apples” and cover up a broader shift in government policies after 9/11.  Four years later, the story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in shame and moral ambiguity.

Our campaign is designed to provide a deeper understanding of the Abu Ghraib photographs and the use of this medium as a tool to document human rights viol ations and instigate a national dialogue on a range of post 9/11 related topics. Other initiatives will shed light on the effects of Abu Ghraib on US domestic policies and international relations.