Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins

Susan Sarandon, narrator

Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not the first time the U.S. has been involved in torture and torture training. This documentary reveals the struggle to expose the truth behind a CIA secret torture training facility on US territory, now located on the grounds of Ft. Benning, GA.

The story is told through the extraordinary life and daring actions of Father Roy Bourgeois, a Vietnam war hero and activist who has risked his freedom and life many times in the campaign to close the training facility.

Three men who never met, each from a different Latin American country, link SOA to torture training. One, a victim of that training, discovered an SOA torture-training manual in Paraguay. The other two were trained in torture techniques at SOA. In 1996 the White House Intelligence Oversight Board confirmed their explosive charges.

At the risk of his life, the producer was pledged to never disclose the identity of one of these three men, who feared for his own life because of the shocking information he revealed.

Called the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) for many years, it continues under a new name, the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. The growing international drive also continues, to expose the truth about this training center and close it down.

"Father Roy" was a primetime telecast on over 150 public stations ten years ago. At that time it screened at human rights and other festivals in Amsterdam (Amnesty Intl opening night), Guatemala, Havana (Coral Award), Leipzig, Brussels, Seoul, Central Florida (First Prize), Columbus, Ohio (Bronze Award), Texas, California, New York; and it was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle.

57 minutes