“The Reckoning” on PBS

PBS will be airing an important documentary about the ICC, The Reckoning, on July 14.  Here is PBS’s description of the film, which is directed by Pamela Yates, who received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008:

Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. Like a deft thriller, The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat. Will the prosecutor succeed? Will the world ensure that justice prevails? An Official Selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

I worked with PBS on the educational materials for the film, so I’ve had the opportunity to see it.  It’s a genuinely excellent documentary, one that manages to be both educational and exciting.  I particularly like the section on the ICC’s monitoring of the situation in Colombia; as I will discuss in a post later this week, I think that Colombia offers the Court an important opportunity to investigate crimes committed by state agents in a non-African country.  My only criticism of the film is that it largely avoids the controversy that has been swirling around Moreno-Ocampo for the past few years; I could have done without the long, lingering shots of him looking pensive.  But that is a very minor complaint.

Watch The Reckoning!