new film: "THE RESPONSE"

"The response matters.  Our response defines us."  

 --Colonel Jefferson            

 

 

THE RESPONSE is a courtroom drama based on the actual transcripts of the 

Guantanamo Bay military tribunals [officially known as the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, or 

CSRTs]. In the film, three military judges must decide the fate of a Middle Eastern 

detainee.  Is he an enemy combatant, guilty of providing material support to Al Qaeda 

and responsible for the deaths of several American soldiers?  Or is he an innocent victim 

of circumstances as he claims?   

 

While the judges see the classified evidence, the detainee does not.  While the judges 

know who has accused the detainee, the detainee does not.  In response, the government 

counters that to release such classified information could assist the terrorist networks and 

undermine U.S. national security. 

 

For the first time ever, THE RESPONSE holds a mirror up to the tribunals and allows 

an audience to see and hear for themselves what goes on inside Guantanamo. While the 

three judges and the detainee are fictionalized composite characters, the dramatic 

situation of the legal process is fully accurate. 

 

The film places the audience inside a Kafkaesque tribunal process where they, along with 

the military judges, must decide whether the evidence presented is convincing and 

credible and if the detainee is, indeed, an enemy combatant. 

 

THE RESPONSE was researched and fully vetted in conjunction with the University of 

Maryland School of Law where the film was shot in just 3 days with a minimal budget. 

The talented cast and crew agreed to defer all or most of their salaries so that the film 

could be made. The University donated its locations and the staff and students donated 

their time and energies.