Directors, Marc Hawker and Ishbel Whitaker
Marc Hawker and Ishbel Whitaker are owners of the award winning DarkFibre. Marc produced David LaChapelle's Oscar short listed, RIZE and Ishbel directed the controversial LIVING GODDESS, soundtrack by Nitin Sawhney. They have made films for Levi's, worked with the KLF and have a background in extremeperformance art and installation work. They are currently in development on two feature films.
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We were asked by Amnesty to make a series of films on so called “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”. Waiting For The Guards is the first one, its about the use of Stress Positions by the CIA when they interrogate prisoners. A Stress Position is when the prisoner is made to stay in a position that becomes excruciatingly painful over a long period of time. It is am aggresive softening up technique. The prisoner is either chained into the position or told if he moves out of the position he’ll face far worse treatment.
We took a radical approach, and Amnesty had the courage to back us. We didn’t want to reconstruct Stress Positions, to use actors and fake it. Instead we wanted to find someone who would agree to be put in a Stress Position for real. To experience the pain for real. Our feeling was that if we were to fake it, or do something more abstract, it would not communicate the real horror and dehuminisation that these techniques involve. We wanted to show the truth. Our media space is full of images of super-violence and we wanted this film to stand out and have its own dignity and clarity. Above all we wanted the film to be emotional.
We then thought about the interrogators. We needed some kind of narrative structure to counterbalance the images of the prisoner in pain. Our thoughts were about how torture dehuamnises everyone, including the interrogator. The part of the interrogator was played by Richard Loudon, an actor and member of Sheffield’s seminal Forced Entertainment. Stress Positions is all about time duration. Its not short sharp shock. So we imagined the interrogator in our film just simply waiting, getting bored… and talking to his daughter on his mobile phone (a simple, ordinary daily life type thing). We found this juxtaposition probably more authentic and chilling than if we had cast the interrogator as some kind of psychotic.
We had to find a performer who would accept the part of the prisoner. When we met and spoke with Jiva, it was brilliant. He is a performance artist who understood what our methodology was.
We started filming in a damp, cold basement of a disused office building. Because Jiva would be in pain and there was danger to his health, we had a paramedic with us. We also agreed a special word Jiva would shout in case the pain got too much. The word was “green”. Filming Jiva was difficult and took place over 8 hours. We had to direct him to stay in painful positions when his body was fighting to stop, demanding him to experience pain. This was mot easy for us. Its not a normal thing to ask someone else to do. You feel dirty doing it. Every time it all got too much for Jiva and he shouted “green” we rushed over to comfort him and make sure he was OK. We had a strict regime that when it got too much for him we stop filming and he walks around the space exercising his muscles.
It was important for us to film this “beautifully”. We paid a lot of attention to this. We didn’t want to film it like a horror film or a docu drama. No exaggerated camera shaking.
What surprised us was the actual filming was almost like a religious ritual. All of us, the film crew, everyone felt humbled by Jiva. The sounds of him whimpering, his heavy breathing, his shaking body had a profound effect on us all. It was almost as if he was a sacrificial lamb on our behalf.
When the filming was over, we packed up. We knew we had filmed something special. Everyone was on a high and we headed for the pub and got extremely drunk. We knew we had filmed something special.
Sara Mac Neice, Campaigns Manager, Amnesty International
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We wanted to make "Waiting for the Guards" to show everyone that the techniques that are used to interrogate prisoners in the so called "war on terrror" amount to serious ill treatment and torture. If you are surprised to hear that what you see in this film is legal then you would not be alone. We know that the US and other countries are using increasingly severe interrogation methods and justifying them by telling us that needs must, that these prisoners are "bad men", that getting people to talk might save lives.
Amnesty is totally opposed to terrorism, anyone guilty of involvment in acts of terrorism must be tried and brought to justice but whether governments like it or not, they must be dealt with fairly. The US has said it does not allow torture, yet we know that what you see in this film is only part of the real picture. If you think this is bad how about being interrogated whilst you are naked and the temperature is the room is dropped so low it could induce hypothermia or what about if you are told that your family are in the next room and that they too are being subjected to this type of treatment and worse.
You would talk too. The point is torture is wrong, it is illegal and it must never be allowed. In fact, experts say that the information extracted by torture cannot be relied upon. No-one is saying that suspects should not be questionned but they must never be subjected to this type of abuse. We need to expose this and we need to insist it stops. Let's call interrogations that cause severe physical pain and mental suffering by their proper name - torture.
“The Prisoner”, Jiva Parthipan
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I work as a performance artist and a live artist. So I was excited when Marc asked me to be part of the project. Previously I used to be a dancer and am in good physical form.
When Marc suggested the stress positions, I knew it will be hard but I am pretty used to endurance based work. I thought that my body will take it for about 15 minutes before it gives in. So I was surprised that after about 6 minutes (which was already with much difficulty) that I will be squatting involuntarily with out being able to get up unless somebody helped me out of it
Then I will have a short break, de-hoodded, stretch and repeat it all over again. The more I did the less time I was able to do it. With the mask and standing on a rickety box already dislocates the balance. I thought I will fall off the box on my face. But I was lucky. I knew I could stop any time I wanted to. Also the people around me were very supportive and kind. I knew what was going to happen after the film shoot(meet friends) and definitely knew where I was.
It bears not thinking what it will be like if you were in those positions for much longer, in an undisclosed location and not knowing what was going to happen next!!!
Executive Producer, Marc Cave: Drugstore.
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It’s a spooky thing watching one man stood on a cardboard box stripped, hooded & handcuffed, while another man is just plain bored.
It’s easier to understand primal aggression. If the interrogator was beating the living daylights out of the detainee, you’d know where you were. When Al Pacino was tortured with a chainsaw in Scarface, it was sickening but familiar. We’re used to all that sadistic bad guy stuff.
When you see this kind of calm, casual brutalism, it takes away all the usual moral reference points. Good guys & bad guys; right & wrong. There’s a comfort in these absolutes. But the workaday office tedium of extracting a confession – now that’s a new one. You feel sick about the bloke on the box. But what kind of humanoid has the other bloke become?
MAIN CREDITS
Director/ Producers: Marc Hawker & Ishbel Whitaker
Cinematography: David Knight
Production Company: DarkFibre Films
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