In September 2001, four friends set off from the English Midlands for a wedding and a holiday in Pakistan. Two and a half years later, three of them returned home. The Road to Guantanamo, winner of the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of these British Muslims, held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge in March 2004.With international attention once again focused on the conditions at the prison, The Road to Guantanamo is the first film to tell the inside story of life behind the wire with firsthand accounts from three former detainees. Caryn James of the New York Times describes The Road to Guantanamo as an "amazing" film of "dramatic richness" and "staggering force."

Please join us for a provocative panel discussion and Q&A session immediately following the film.

Featured Panelists:
Brig. Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatric Institute of Washington
Michael Winterbottom, Director, The Road to Guantanamo
William F. Schulz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Ken Gude, Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program, Center for American Progress

Moderated by:
Anna Soellner, Director of Outreach and Special Events, Center for American Progress

Monday, June 19th, 2006 Doors open at 6:30 PM. Screening starts at 7:00 PM sharp Admission is free

Regal Cinemas Gallery Place Stadium 14
701 7th Street NW Washington, DC 20001
Map & Directions

Biographies

Brig. Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, is currently the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. Dr. Xenakis has had a distinguished career in the U.S. Army, as well as in healthcare management, academic medicine, and clinical practice. He retired from the Army in 1998 at the rank of Brigadier General and had held many high level positions, including Commanding General of the Southeast Regional Army Medical Command. Dr. Xenakis has been a Clinical Professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and the Medical College of Georgia. He directed the combined fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry for Eisenhower Army Medical Center and the Medical College of Georgia, and is the First Visiting Professor for Telepsychiatry for The Menninger Clinic. His recent work includes an examination the mental health impact of the war in Iraq on U.S. troops and the activities of military medical personnel in the interrogation process.

Michael Winterbottom was born in Blackburn, England, in 1961. His film credits include Butterfly Kiss (1994) and Go Now (1995), the latter of which won Winterbottom his second Prix Europa. Jude (1995) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Director's Fortnight, won the Michael Powell Award for Best Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and won the Golden Hitchcock Award at the Dinard Film Festival. Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo was in competition at Cannes in 1996, while I Want You (1997) competed at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1998. These were followed by With or Without You and Wonderland, the latter of which was selected for competition at Cannes and Edinburgh in 1999 and won the British Independence Film Award for Best Film. 2001's The Claim was followed by a return to official competition at Cannes in 2002 with 24 Hour Party People. The critically acclaimed In This World (2002) was the winner of the Golden Bear, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, and the Peace Prize at Berlin in 2003, which was the same year Winterbottom directed Code 46.

William F. Schulz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. In March 1994, he was appointed Executive Director of Amnesty International (USA). An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, he came to Amnesty after serving for fifteen years with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), the last eight (1985-93) as President of the Association. As President of the UUA, Schulz was involved in a wide variety of international and social justice causes. He led the first visit by a U.S. Member of Congress to post-revolutionary Romania in January 1991, two weeks after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. That delegation was instrumental in the subsequent improvement in the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Romania. Schulz spent February 1992, in India in consultation with the Holdeen India Fund, a fund dedicated to ending communal violence and to the political and economic empowerment of women, bonded laborers and others. He led fact-finding missions to the Middle East and Northern Ireland and was instrumental in his denomination's opposition to U.S. military aid to El Salvador. In September 2004, Schulz participated in an Amnesty mission to Darfur, Sudan, to help redress the humanitarian crisis in that region. In 1997 he led an Amnesty mission to Liberia to investigate atrocities committed during the civil war there and in 1999 returned to Northern Ireland with Amnesty to insist that human rights protections be incorporated into the peace process. During his years with Amnesty he has traveled extensively, both in the US and abroad, including a 2004 trip to Cuba under the sponsorship of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. From 1985-93 he served on the Council of the International Association for Religious Freedom, the oldest international interfaith organization in the world. Throughout his career he has been outspoken in his opposition to the death penalty and his support for women's rights, gay and lesbian rights and racial justice, having organized, participated in demonstrations and written extensively on behalf of all four causes. Schulz is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago. He was awarded an honorary D. D. (Doctor of Divinity) from Meadville/Lombard in 1987, and has received honorary L. H. D.s (Doctor of Humane Letters) from Nova Southeastern University in 1995, Grinnell College in 2004 and Willamette University in 2005. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the East.

Ken Gude is the Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at the Center for American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, Gude was a Policy Analyst at the Center for National Security Studies, where he focused on post-Sept. 11 civil liberties issues. He also had stints at the Council on Foreign Relations and the British Labour Party, where he served as a Policy Officer working the campaign against the privatization of British Rail. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times and contributed to the forthcoming book, Protecting Democracy: International Responses (Lexington Books, 2004).

Anna Soellner is the director of outreach and special events for the Center for American Progress. She also directs cultural programs at the Center including the Reel Progress program. She served in the office of Martin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, where she was a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar. In that capacity, Anna was the foreign media liaison and assisted in developing party relations with foreign governments and NGOs to promote democracy and rule of law in Hong Kong. Before leaving for Hong Kong, Anna worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs and Public Liaison at the U.S. Treasury Department and for Senator Feinstein in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.