One of the best films I got to see at this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival was Pamela Yates The Reckoning.  The film tells the story of the first 6 years of the International Criminal Court and the struggles they faced (and still do) in becoming a widely accepted body of law. The journey of the court centers on ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the arrest warrants that are put out for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga and the president of Sudan.  It’s an amazing portrait of the complexities of both the world we live in and the systems that define it.

Also of note is that the film will air on PBS’s documentary program POV on July 14th. Everyone should definitely mark this on their calendar and watch the film when it airs.  Not only are the issues it presents horribly important but it is also a beautifully crafted film.

If you need you a little convincing, the interview I did below with director Pamela Yates and Alejandro de Onís (part of The Reckoning’s outreach team) should be enough to prove the film’s importance and also showcase the change it will hopefully be able to create.  TAKEPART: One thing that really struck me about the film was the look of it.  So often films about human rights struggles are more about the issues and less about the look/feel of the film.  But with The Reckoning I think you succeeded in making a film with important content but also a purposeful and quite beautiful look/pace.  Can you tell us a bit about how you all decided to create that look?

PAMELA YATES: We conceived of “The Reckoning” as a political thriller about international crime and punishment. I insisted on working with all the power of filmic artistry—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 “The Reckoning”. 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. Paco de Onís, Peter Kinoy and I (the team who made TR) are human rights activists and we aspire to make great art. The two are compatible.

TP: When the ICC finally brings Thomas Lubanga to trial it is quite a relief.  How did you react when they almost had to release him?

PY: I was about to go to The Hague to film the beginning of the Thomas Lubanga trial when I got the phone call saying that they trial could be stopped and Lubanga released. It was a huge disappointment because I had been in the eastern Congo and met former child soldiers from Lubanga’s militia, and seen how it destroyed their young lives.

But, in documentary filmmaking one is used to being thrown curve balls and having to react appropriately, flexibly. I know I control nothing, because these are real people and real situations. My feeling was that if the prosecution cannot make its case, then Lubanga would have to go free. But it was also a dramatic opportunity for me to follow how the Court would respond to this situation that it never faced before regarding evidence and rule of law. These are the moments that really test the mettel of the Court.

TP: The ICC’s work in general seems to always be on shaky ground when it comes to global acceptance, what can a normal person do to support their work?

Today, as I write this, Chile has become the 109th country to become a member state of the ICC. So there are two currents at play: one is that the Court is growing and becoming a real player on the world stage, a factor in the growth of global justice. The other is how effective can this new Court be? And that is up to us citizens of the world. The inspiration behind the film is that everyone get a general knowledge of the Court—told in a dramatic and emotional way in “The Reckoning”, and that they engage in the international justice debate. We have a 3 year audience engagement initiative, a web portal that can help viewers join the conversation and connects them to our outreach partners who are already part of the vibrant movement for international justice. It is http://ijcentral.com Join in!

TP: Another thing that is really interesting is that the film reads like a historical piece but in reality the content is very current, with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s arrest warrant being issued as recently as March.  What made you decide to finish the film now instead of gathering more content or following some of the stories further?

PY: I thought that the first six tumultuous years of the ICC would be a good starting point to make an engaging film for a general audience. Of course the climax of the film is arrest warrant for President al-Bashir of Sudan, but we have already updated the film twice, most recently for our PBS/POV broadcast. And in our non-linear, digital world we will continuously updating the film.

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: http:ijcentral.org

As part of our 3 year outreach campaign we are also creating 10-15 minute educational modules that will be free and online, detailing what we could not deal with in depth in the film. The first 3 modules are fascinating stories about unfolding current events. They will be: The Creation of the International Criminal Court, the Darfur case and Justice vs. Peace in Uganda. We are working with one of our outreach partners, Facing History and Ourselves, who will be writing additional study materials.

TP: You went to a lot of dangerous places in the film, what was the most difficult part of going to these places and making the film in general?

PY: It is incredibly difficult and dangerous to travel to conflict zones and still try to make a good film under those circumstances. But we had to go to the scenes of the alleged crimes or “The Reckoning” would not have been complete. I was always concerned for the safety of our crew. One of the Congolese militia leaders was arrested by the ICC and flown to the Hague while we were in the Congo, and he was from the town where we were based. So we braced ourselves for the reaction, but all remained calm. I was concerned for the safety of the people who agreed to talk to us on camera, because when there is no traditional of independent journalism, as was the case in the eastern Congo, people thought we were gathering evidence to take to the Court.

That was the physical challenge, the intellectual challenge was how to make a film that takes place across 4 continents in 6 languages and make it into a coherent narrative. And that is where the brilliance of editor Peter Kinoy came into play.

We decided that “The Reckoning” had to be told with the Court as the main character, in other words that the stories are told, the action is driven from the perspective of the Court. And Peter is a master at taking the audience on a harrowing odyssey while never confusing them.

TP: Can you explain a bit about IJ Central and at what point got the idea for the film and at what point you got the idea for IJ Central and how they are meant to work together?

Alejandro de Onis: IJCentral, in tandem with documentary film “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court”, will be the core of a social network for global justice to combat the entrenched culture of impunity for crimes against humanity, implementing a multi-platform citizen engagement strategy using geo-located mobile phone SMS text messages, to build a worldwide constituency for the rule of law visualized on the IJC Map. Success will be an active global constituency supporting the justice mandate of the ICC, to prosecute perpetrators of the worst crimes, no matter how powerful.

For example, using sms text messaging, high school students in Indianapolis, after seeing “The Reckoning” can text the head of the internally displaced persons camp in Uganda, Dennis Lemoyi who is seen in the film and have a two way conversation. They can also text former child soldiers, kids their own age, in Uganda and Congo.

TP: Tell me more about your plans for the educational release of the film?

AdO: For distribution in the educational realm, we distribute to hundreds of universities through the New Day Films cooperative, to public libraries through New Day Films and OverDrive, an online platform for public libraries, and to high schools through Facing History and Ourselves with a network of over 25,000 high school teachers and the Human Rights Watch High School Program,.  In addition, the 3-year citizen engagement campaign will drive new constituents to IJCentral through screenings conducted around the world with our NGO partners and national/international television broadcasts of “The Reckoning”, and online delivery of the film and related media modules for activists and educators.

We plan to make multiple language versions in French, Spanish, Acholi, Swahili and Arabic and make them available in the ICC’s situation countries—where the ICC as opened cases.

Our measures of success will be the creation of a broad global database of international justice constituents that can be reached for calls to action in support of the ICC’s justice mandate, and a vibrant international justice social network with low entry barrier SMS text messaging at its core, allowing for a truly inclusive global community that supports the rule of law in conflict resolution, and strengthens the mandate of the ICC for a world with justice, peace and security.

TP: What is your best case scenario for what the film will be able to accomplish?

AdO: To create global awareness of the International Criminal Court, and an international grassroots base of support that will pressure leaders to cooperate with the ICC justice mandate to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.  And to have these new constituencies created by the film become a driving force for universal ratification of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, so that we can take it from the current 109 countries to 192, including the U.S., Russia and China.

The United States and US jurists have been such an important part of developing international justice from the Nuremberg tribunals through the creation of the International Criminal Court that we hope the national broadcast premiere of “The Reckoning” on July 14th on POV will get Americans excited about working on these issues

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Photo: Professor Pilo inspects a skull in the killing fields of Bogoro, Ituri, eastern Congo.
Credit: Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos