VODO’s first release, Ivo Gormley’s US NOW, has so far been distributed to over 250,000 downloaders in around three weeks. Last week we went live with IN GUANTANAMO by David Miller, starting with a front-page promotion on The Pirate Bay and moving onto a front page on Mininova this week, with further promotion from other members of the DISCO coalition.

Miller’s film, which explores the US military’s presentation of the infamous detention camp during a three day tour granted the filmmaker in 2008, is a premiere Bittorrent release.

Guantanamo naval base, ‘Gitmo’, covers forty five square miles of Cuba inside an area under a controversial ‘permanent lease’ to the United States. Since 2002, the base has become synonymous with its detainment facilities for suspected terrorists. Although Barack Obama has given orders for the detention camp to be closed, the facilities remain open to this day. David Miller’s quiet, powerful film is the result of three days the filmmaker spent touring the camps in May 2008 as part of a small group of media representatives allowed there. Although the event was presented as a chance to ’see inside’ the working of Guantanamo, it was in fact a carefully staged PR exercise designed to yield predictable, stale, controlled media images.

The film was produced in 2008/2009 in conjunction with Yvonne Ridley, PRSNL Pictures and the VODO team. Special thanks to Editor Luca Lucarini.

IN GUANTANAMO is released via VODO under a Creative Commons Non-Commerical No-Derivs Attribution License. The filmmaker does not permit remixes but would like the work to be shared freely for non-commercial purposes.

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