The Plight of the Tortured (as Opposed to the Torturers for a Change) Gets Big Screen Due

Hollywood's awards season has plopped onto red carpets many stars and players from films and television shows (think Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Homeland) that glorify CIA agents, with director Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker follow-up drawing the most controversy for its scenes of American-endorsed torture.

Perhaps the documentary on torture survivors rolling Saturday at Cal State Fullerton is then cinematic karma.

The university's Muslim Students Association and the Council on American-Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles Area office (CAIR-LA), which is based in Anaheim, co-host a special screening of The Tortured: Stories of Survival, which chronicles the hell five survivors endured.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Murad Aldin Amayreh interweaves their accounts drawn from time in prisons in El Salvador, Colombia, Israel, Syria and Vietnam. Those places may be far-flung, but the survivors' stories of inhumane treatment and psychological baggage ring similar.

Hector Aristizabal, one of those from the film who endured torture, will be part of a panel discussion following the film. As will Amayreh and Stephen Rohde, constitutional lawyer and lecturer. The goal of CAIR-LA is to draw attention to local efforts and policy initiatives aimed at stopping torture.

Here is the event poster:

Doors open for The Tortured: Stories of Survival at 5:30 p.m. and the screening begins at 6 p.m. in Titan Theater at Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Visit CAIR-LA for more information.

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