Skip to content

Film awareness night focuses on captured youth

The film probes Omar Khadr’s case from every angle with interviews with American soldiers, prison guards, prison mates and his lawyer.

On March 9, Awareness Film Night will present the documentary Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr.

Khadr is the Canadian youth who was captured in Afghanistan by American forces and spent more than a decade in Guantanamo Bay Prison. Until now he has existed only as a caricature drawn and defined by others: victim, killer, child prisoner, detainee, political pawn, terrorist and pacifist.

Based on the book by journalist Michelle Shephard, who also co-directed the film with Patrick Reed, the movie chronicles Khadr’s life from his arrival in Afghanistan from Canada with his family through his capture when he was 15 to his time in Guantanamo Bay Prison where he underwent hundreds of hours of interrogation and “coercive techniques” and finally to his release on bail in May of 2015 in Edmonton.

The film probes Khadr’s case from every angle with interviews with American soldiers, prison guards, prison mates and his lawyer. In the words of the filmmakers: “We had a simple goal in making this documentary. We wanted to tell his story by allowing him to tell his story... it was not a simple film to make.” Guantanamo’s Child was rated one of the 10 best Canadian documentaries of 2015 by Vancouver’s Cinematheque.

The film will be screened, as usual, from 7-9 p.m. in the Edward Milne Community School theatre, admission is by donation. For more info, visit awarenessfilmnight.ca.