Announcing video contest examining torture and torture accountability: Open to amateurs and professionals.

June 30, 2013, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA--The Tackling Torture Video Contest is accepting entries now. It is open to both amateur and professional filmmakers.

·         Four prizes:

§         $500 jury prize for the serious category,

§         $500 jury prize for the humorous/satirical category, and

§         two $300 Audience Favorite prizes, one for serious and one for humorous/satirical.

·         Videos can be from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in duration, but any length video has an equal chance of winning.

·         The contest is open to any citizen of any nation.

·         All videos must be in English or have full translations of all sound and text into English as part of the videos themselves.

·         Deadline for entries is October 1, 2013.

·         Twenty finalists announced October 8, 2013 (Audience voting begins--see rules for audience voting)

·         Judging and audience voting completed October 21, 2013.

·         Announcement of winners and gala presentation in Minneapolis, Minnesota anticipated for the end of October (venue and date TBA).

For full contest rules and judging criteria please go to

http://tacklingtorturevideocontest.webs.com/ and Contest Rules .

The contest is mounted and run by Tackling Torture at the Top, a committee of WAMM (Women Against Military Madness).

Judges for the contest will be:

·         Sebastian Doggart, producer of the award winning biographical documentary American Faust: from Condi to Neo-Condiand other films

·         Joseph Jolton, filmmaker, adjunct faculty, Media Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design

·         Professor Peter Kuznick, American University, co-writer with Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States documentary series for Showtime

·         Andy Worthington, filmmaker and investigative journalist, author of “The Guantanamo Files”

Background: Despite US and international law prohibiting the use of torture the US has used torture, often euphemistically called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” in its so-called “War on Terror.”  Despite the law, despite documented proof that such efforts produce inadmissable evidence, false information and false confessions, and despite the blowback of such efforts, the US continues to shield the lawbreakers--both those who committed and those who authorized torture--by“looking forward, not backward,” and there is evidence that such techniques continue to be used and falsely justified. 

Through TV shows like “24” and Hollywood films like the commercially successful “Zero Dark Thirty” and the new documentary “Manhunt,” the US’ use of torture is presented as viable, and even necessary to our country’s security.  Unfortunately, a majority of the under-informed and misinformed public now thinks that torture is necessary and useful.

Tackling Torture at the Top, through this contest, hopes to produce entertaining and informative videos that contradict this harmful and inhumane view, educate the public, raise questions about the direction of our foreign policy and our use of the military, and by so doing, give the public the awareness and courage to rein in our country’s out of control security apparatus.

Links: CONTEST RULES, BACKGROUND

Rules, video submission method, timeline, judging criteria, are all at the website: Tackling Torture Video Contest  (http://tacklingtorturevideocontest.webs.com/) 

Contact: tacklingtorturevideo@fastmail.fm  Contest managers are Tom Dickinson and Coleen Rowley on behalf of Tackling Torture at the Top Committee of WAMM, Minnesota, USA