Director: Laura Poitras
Filmed in Yemen, The Oath is a family drama about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that would lead to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Release is the second documentary (after My Country, My Country) in a trilogy titled The New American Century about America post 9/11.
The Oath is the second documentary in a trilogy titled The New American Century about America post 9/11 (following My Country, My Country). The third film will focus on domestic surveillance. My Country, My Country was nominated for an Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Emmy Award. It was released theatrically by Zeitgeist Films and broadcast on P.O.V. She received a Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy and Independent Spirit Award for Flag Wars, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival where it won the award for Best Documentary. She is currently the Artistic Director of Witness to Guantanamo, a multi-year archive project to conduct in-depth interviews with former Guantanamo prisoners and currently teaches documentary filmmaking at Yale University. My Country, My Country was nominated for an Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Emmy Award. It was released theatrically by Zeitgeist Films and broadcast on P.O.V. She received a Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy and Independent Spirit Award for Flag Wars, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival where it won the award for Best Documentary. She is currently the Artistic Director of Witness to Guantanamo, a multi-year archive project to conduct in-depth interviews with former Guantanamo prisoners. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Her work has received support from ITVS, Sundance Documentary Fund, P.O.V., Creative Capital, Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, Chicken and Egg Pictures, and others. Before making documentaries, Laura worked as a professional chef. She currently teaches documentary filmmaking at Yale University.
