Joyce and Simm on Zero Dark Thirty, International Law, and Film

Daniel Joyce, Lecturer, UNSW Australia, Faculty of Law, and Affiliated Research Fellow, Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki, and Gabrielle Simm, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology, Sydney, Faculty of Law, and Visiting Fellow, Australian Human Rights Centre, UNSW Australia Faculty of Law, have published Zero Dark Thirty: International Law, Film, and Representation at 3 London Review of International Law 295 (2015). Here is the abstract.

This article explores the relationship between film and international law by reference to the feature film Zero Dark Thirty (2012). The authors examine this film in the context of international law, while also considering related questions of genre, torture, gender and targeted killing.

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What's In Theaters; What's Up With "Zero Dark Thirty"

Two reviews of newly released law-related films from The Hollywood Reporter: Gangster Squad and Promised Land.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, some Senators are questioning CIA involvement in the writing of the script for the Kathryn Bigelow hit Zero Dark Thirty. According to THR,

[I]n a Dec. 19 letter to acting CIA director Michael Morell, the lawmakers expressed a concern that “given the CIA’s cooperation with the filmmakers and the narrative’s consistency with past public misstatements by former senior CIA officials, filmmakers could have been misled by information they were provided by the CIA.”

The senators went on to demand that the intelligence agency turn over to them  "'all information and documents provided to the filmmakers by CIA officials." In a second letter sent Dec. 31, Feinstein, Levin and McCain responded to an unusual message Morrell sent to all CIA employees on Dec. 21. In that message, which was posted to the agency's website, the acting director stated that “some [intelligence related to bin Laden’s location] came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well.”

More here. More coverage here from the Los Angeles Times.