Standard Operating Procedure

Standard Operating Procedure (2008) is a documentary by Errol Morris you can watch online on iFILM — a close, unsettling examination of the Abu Ghraib prison photographs that surfaced in 2004. The images showed American soldiers posing beside naked, restrained detainees. But who took the pictures, and what did taking them mean?

Morris does what he does best: extended, uncut interviews with the people who were actually there. Lynndie England, Sabrina Harman, Javal Davis, and Brigadier General Janis Karpinski all speak at length, often contradicting each other. Morris, who had already taken home an Oscar for The Fog of War, frames the whole thing as a question about orders, obedience, and where exactly documentation ends and participation begins. Not comfortable viewing — but essential for anyone trying to understand what the occupation looked like from inside a prison block. Stream Standard Operating Procedure (2008) online on iFILM.