Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris leads us to the stories behind the pictures of Abu Ghraib in his latest film Standard Operating Procedure. (screening today at IDFA).

Besides deep interviews with most of the people involved, Morris interviews Brent Pack, a formal special agent for the Criminal Investigations Division, who analyzed the photographs for the official report that was made for US Congress . Pack reviewed several terabytes of data, including digital photographs, documents and emails, to create a timeline of the alleged abuse events that took place in the prison. This timeline is amazingly visualized in the film by Graphics and Animation Designer Kyle Cooper showing us the power of data visualizations.

All of a sudden the spectator realizes that the pictures of specific incidents were taken almost at the same time and by showing the angles they were taken, we can actually imagine how the whole incident took place. Data visualization and documentary merged successfully to present an accurate and comprehensible display of the terrible events at Abu Grahib.