Sundance doc adds new take on hunt for bin Laden

The Associated Press, Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 1:14pm (PST)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The filmmaker behind an Osama bin Laden documentary at the Sundance Film Festival says the debate over the accuracy of Hollywood's take on the story detracts from the deeper moral questions involved.

Greg Barker, director of "Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden," says criticism over Kathryn Bigelow's Academy Award-nominated "Zero Dark Thirty" is a political issue that's over-simplifying the matter.

"Zero Dark Thirty" has drawn fire from Washington lawmakers who say the film inaccurately depicts torture as integral in producing leads that led to bin Laden's death in a Navy SEALs raid.

Barker says he thinks "coercive interrogation" techniques probably did contribute to the bin Laden manhunt. But he says his film attempts to shed light on the moral ambiguity of decisions being made in the war on terror.