‘The Corridors of Power’ makes viewers wonder how they would have reacted to global atrocities – Contenders Documentary

in the The corridors of powerFilmmaker Dror Moreh takes a refreshing look at the factors that prevented America – the only remaining superpower of the post-Cold War era – from intervening on a large scale in global cases of genocide, war crimes and other atrocities.

“The idea for the film actually came when I saw the horrific image coming out of Syria, especially after the chemical attack [in 2013], especially after the Syrian regime crossed Obama’s red line,” Moreh revealed at the Deadline Contender’s Film: Documentary awards show, noting that President Barack Obama has signaled that the US will commit to countering the Assad regime stand. “So I wondered what happens in these decision rooms when they decide to intervene in one place but not in another, or they don’t decide?”

“After World War II, the world would have looked at what happened and said, ‘Never again,’ and yet it keeps happening,” explains Moreh, who began the film’s chronology in the 1990s.

The corridors of power is peppered with interviews with some of the world’s top diplomats and senior US officials, including Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, James Baker, Leon Panetta, Wesley Clark, Chuck Hagel, Prudence Bushnell, Samantha Power and current Secretary of State Antony Shine. on politics towards war-torn countries such as Syria, Rwanda and Bosnia.

Moreh said he secured his conversation with those in the room where it happened “with a lot of patience and determination. And they wanted to talk: the first interview with Madeleine Albright, the late former secretary of state, in November 2014; the last interview with Samantha Power was in February 2020 just before Covid. So it was a six-year process to get everyone talking.”

But Moreh ultimately made a conscious choice not to speak to any of the younger US presidents.

“At first I thought I would interview her,” he told the Contenders panel, which also included the film’s co-editors Oron Adar and Stephan Krumbiegel. “But the more I watched the interviews, I decided I didn’t want that because I wanted to put the audience in the decision maker’s seat. I want the public to see the pros and cons. Let’s say Madeline Albright says, “We have to intervene in Bosnia,” and Colin Powell says before her, “No, we can’t intervene.” And I wanted everyone in the audience to ask, ‘What would I do if I were the commander in chief?'”

Check back Wednesday for the panel video.