Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins

To order

Written, directed and produced by Robert Richter

The real struggle to find and reveal the truth about CIA sponsored torture.

Scheduled for re-broadcast in the 2009 "Global Voices" series on PBS World. Check your local public station for exact date and time. And if they haven't scheduled it, urge them to do so!

Feedback by viewers of the earlier public TV screenings at http://itvs.org/shows/talkback.php?showID=7242

"This powerful film presents one person's efforts to change American foreign policy... recommended for all video collections."
—Library Journal

Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not the first time the U.S. has been involved in torture and torture training. This documentary reveals the struggle to expose the truth behind a secret torture training facility on US territory, now located on the grounds of Ft. Benning, GA.

Susan Sarandon, narrator

"One of the outstanding documentaries of 1997."
—Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The story is told through the extraordinary life and daring actions of Father Roy Bourgeois, a Vietnam war hero and leading activist who has risked his freedom and life many times in the campaign to close the trainng facility. For many years it was called the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).

Three men who never met, each from a different Latin American country, link SOA to torture training. One, a victim of that training, discovered an SOA torture-training manual in Paraguay. The other two were trained in torture techniques at SOA. In 1996 the White House Intelligence Oversight Board confirmed their explosive charges.

At the risk of his life, the producer was pledged to never disclose the identity of one of these three men, who feared for his own life because of the shocking information he revealed in this documentary.

"Inspiring." -Grand Rapids Press
"Persuasive."-Boston Globe
'Chilling." -Dallas Morning News
"Fascinating...intriguing." -The Evangelist

SOA continues under a new name, the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. The growing international drive also continues, to expose the truth about this School of Assassins and close it down.

"An inspiring tool for education and action."
-Report on Guatemala

"Father Roy" was a primetime telecast on over 150 public stations ten years ago. At that time it screened at human rights and other festivals in Guatemala, Havana (Coral Award), Leipzig, Brussels, Amsterdam, Seoul, Central Florida (First Prize), Columbus, Ohio (Bronze Award), Texas, California, New York and was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle.

57 minutes

Study Areas: American studies, religion, Catholicism, U.S. foreign policy, social and political history, religion and politics, contemporary religious thought, biography, developing nations issues, Latin American studies, human rights, peace studies, biography, broadcast journalism.

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Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins

Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not the first time the U.S. has been involved in torture and torture training. This documentary reveals the struggle to expose the truth behind a secret torture training facility on US territory, now located on the grounds of Ft. Benning, GA.

The story is told through the extraordinary life and daring actions of Father Roy Bourgeois, a Vietnam war hero and leading activist who has risked his freedom and life many times in the campaign to close the trainng facility. For many years it was called the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).

SOA continues under a new name, the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. The growing international drive also continues, to expose the truth about this School of Assassins and close it down.