A Simple Case For Torture, or How To Sleep at Night

1983, 63:03 min, color, sound

Rosler identifies the totalitarian implications of an argument for torture under certain circumstances, as it appears in the editorial pages of Newsweek magazine. Her critique is formulated through voiceover narration and an on-camera collection of print media — articles on subjects ranging from human rights to unemployment and global economics. Implicating the United States government and American businesses for supporting regimes that systematically use torture, she indicts the American press for its role as an agent of disinformation through selective coverage, its use of language, and for implicitly legitimizing a point of view that justifies torture.

Camera: Dieter Froese, Martha Rosler. Readers: Michael Bernhard, Lyn Blumenthal, Martha Rosler, John Strauss. Singer: Frank White.