In honor of the premiere of the great documentary The Reckoning on POV tonight I just wanted to point you in the direction of the exclusive interview I had with the filmmakers a few weeks ago.   It should get you excited to watch the film tonight - which you should.

It airs tonight on PBS, you can go HERE to find out what time it will be on your local PBS station.

Also, please head on over to The Reckoning’s page on the POV website. There you can see exclusive video interviews and also learn how you can help support the International Criminal Court.

Enjoy the below excerpt from our interview and be sure to check out the entire thing HERE.

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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.

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