*”What’s Up Docs” is Cinefamily and Cinema Eye Honors’ ongoing showcase of non-fiction features that are both innovative and firmly dedicated to artistic craft – not just those that are “good for you” or feature “an important cause,” but ones that create a lasting resonance and kick ass. A 90 minute spectacularly gripping documentary that unspools like a great political thriller, The Oath, from Oscar-nominated director Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country), is the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting propelled them on divergent courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme Court. Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Sana’a, Yemen; his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan is a Guantanamo prisoner and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals. Their intertwined personal trajectories – how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver, respectively – act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world which has confounded Western media. Winner of Best Documentary Cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Oath offers a rare window into a realm too long misunderstood, and the international impact of the U.S. “war on terror.” Dir. Laura Poitras, 2010, digital presentation, 90 min. Show starts at 8 P.M.

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