Hidden in Plain Sight
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
In this brief, affecting docu, director John Smihula lays out a trenchant case against the School of the Americas, a U.S. military academy whose critics have dubbed it the School of the Assassins. There's screen time for SOA supporters, but the argument's balance falls heavily on the opposing side, whose numbers here include American politicians, human rights advocates, well-known gadflies Noam Chomsky and Christopher Hitchens and individuals who have been victimized by U.S.-trained death squads. "Hidden in Plain Sight" is a worthy title for cable nets scheduling hard-hitting documentary fare.
The centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America, the SOA has trained 60,000 soldiers from the region -- Manuel Noriega among them -- since its opening in 1946. Closed by an act of Congress in December 2000, it promptly reopened as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a mouthful of a name that critics, including a former instructor, consider a euphemism for the same old program in combat and counterinsurgency tactics. 1% of the school's graduates have been convicted of human rights abuses, a figure that is either significant or minuscule, depending on the speaker's point of view.
The institute drew fire when its infamous manual on torture came to light, and it has been the object of some of the largest domestic antiwar demonstrations since Vietnam, under the aegis of the Rev. Roy Bourgeois' SOA Watch. Among those seen marching on the Fort Benning, Ga., campus is Martin Sheen, who narrates the film's opening sequences. There's harrowing testimony from Sister Dianna Ortiz, who while a schoolteacher in Guatemala was captured, tortured and repeatedly raped, and from Ana Chavez Fisher, who found her missing husband among the victims of a massacre in El Salvador.
The film takes its title from writer Hitchens' observation that SOA/WHISC is something of an open secret, a stance he attributes to its methods of terror and intimidation. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano offers stinging commentary on the relationship between the United States and its southern neighbors, and what emerges is a portrait of policy-dictated atrocities designed to protect corporate interests and exploit natural resources and cheap labor. With anguished compassion for the indigent people of Latin America, "Hidden" ends with a plaintive cry for government accountability.
In this brief, affecting docu, director John Smihula lays out a trenchant case against the School of the Americas, a U.S. military academy whose critics have dubbed it the School of the Assassins. There's screen time for SOA supporters, but the argument's balance falls heavily on the opposing side, whose numbers here include American politicians, human rights advocates, well-known gadflies Noam Chomsky and Christopher Hitchens and individuals who have been victimized by U.S.-trained death squads. "Hidden in Plain Sight" is a worthy title for cable nets scheduling hard-hitting documentary fare.
The centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America, the SOA has trained 60,000 soldiers from the region -- Manuel Noriega among them -- since its opening in 1946. Closed by an act of Congress in December 2000, it promptly reopened as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a mouthful of a name that critics, including a former instructor, consider a euphemism for the same old program in combat and counterinsurgency tactics. 1% of the school's graduates have been convicted of human rights abuses, a figure that is either significant or minuscule, depending on the speaker's point of view.
The institute drew fire when its infamous manual on torture came to light, and it has been the object of some of the largest domestic antiwar demonstrations since Vietnam, under the aegis of the Rev. Roy Bourgeois' SOA Watch. Among those seen marching on the Fort Benning, Ga., campus is Martin Sheen, who narrates the film's opening sequences. There's harrowing testimony from Sister Dianna Ortiz, who while a schoolteacher in Guatemala was captured, tortured and repeatedly raped, and from Ana Chavez Fisher, who found her missing husband among the victims of a massacre in El Salvador.
The film takes its title from writer Hitchens' observation that SOA/WHISC is something of an open secret, a stance he attributes to its methods of terror and intimidation. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano offers stinging commentary on the relationship between the United States and its southern neighbors, and what emerges is a portrait of policy-dictated atrocities designed to protect corporate interests and exploit natural resources and cheap labor. With anguished compassion for the indigent people of Latin America, "Hidden" ends with a plaintive cry for government accountability.
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.