• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Spencer Mandell, Director of “God’s Open Hand”

One of the promises made by the Bush administration after 9/11 was to bring democracy to Afghanistan, a country the US invaded less than a month after the attacks in New York and DC. Five years later, Afghanistan is in flames, with an epidemic in suicide bombings, drug production, and general instability. Afghanistan is proportionately a more dangerous place for US troops than Iraq today. Despite presidential and parliamentary elections, Afghans are much less hopeful about their country’s future. A new documentary making waves at film festivals, focuses on Afghanistan struggle toward democracy in spite of warlordism and Western intervention. The film is called God’s Open Hand and it’s directed by Spencer Mandell. The film’s focus is Afghanistan’s historic first presidential election as seen through the eyes of the Afghan people, as well as the major presidential candidates and western observers. It features interviews with the US-backed President Hamid Karzai, as well some of the candidates running for office such as Yunus Qanooni of the Northern Alliance, and exclusive interviews with representatives of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. The film won the best political documentary award at the 2006 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. It is showing this Friday as part of the Los Angeles International Independent Film and Video Festival.

For more information, visit www.ghost-studios.com

God’s Open Hand will be playing at the Laemmle Fairfax Theater on Friday September 15th at 6:10 pm.

Tickets are available online here.