Hot Docs 2008

Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America's image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behaviour of a few "bad apples"? With his usual rigour and cinematic elegance, Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement alumnus Errol Morris sets out to examine the context of these photographs. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? With direct testimony from the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs, Standard Operating Procedure asks: Who are these people? What were they thinking? How did American values become so compromised that Abu Ghraib-and the subsequent cover-up-could happen?