I realize this is becoming an over-saturated niche and that most people are probably tired of hearing about Iraq and the Middle East. Hell, another one “No End In Sight” was released this weekend. However, I still think that great documentaries deserve to be recognized; conversely, the below par ones avoided. I’m very interested in the Middle East and Islam, so please take my enthusiasm in stride. I didn’t want to limit posts to films/documentaries solely about Iraq. So as much as I despise the reference, I’m going to stick with this relatively inclusive post title. Suggestions for an improved title are very much welcome though.

Here are selections of the docs I’ve seen with relevant commentary by me unless otherwise noted:

======The Power of Nightmares (BBC) - 2005

Synopsis: It’s a three part television documentary series that explores, and makes a parallel, to the rise of the neo-conservative movement in American politics and radical Islamism.

Review: As a more polemic/academic documentary it is one of the most informative that I’ve seen on exploring the current War on Terror from a historical standpoint. Actually, I saw this film in a Current Topics in the Middle East (Islamism) class in college. The professor teaching the class was interviewed in the first part of the series since he is regarded as an expert on a key person discussed in that section.

Still it, like every documentary, has an agenda or thesis to push. Nevertheless, the facts are solid and it’s largely free of mindless “conspiracy” theory bull shit that seems to be the focus of many independent documentaries examining the war on terror. The documentary has its moments of wit and entertaining footage, but you have to be dedicated and interested (think history channel) to make it all the way through.

While it doesn’t delve as much as I’d like, it explains the topic of Islamism (political Islam) in a historical and contemporary context far more thoroughly than any media/documentary source I’ve encountered. This is a subject that is too often unfairly and superficially characterized by the Western media, but it’s of the utmost importance for understanding the current political culture/climate in the Middle East.

An understandable criticism is that the film (filmmakers) underestimates the danger of al-Qaeda. I do think that to make a point about the fear-mongering involved in politics, the threat of Osama’s “network” was understated. However, the filmaker’s point on this is extremely valid. The “threat” is real, but it stems from an ideology that attracts relatively unconnected individuals, not so much a super-secret “network”. The emphasis of the film is to put the ‘threat’ in perspective. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/4202741.stm)

I could go on forever but….

Conclusion: historical, informative, controversial, anti-establishment, and thought provoking.

9/10

====== My Country, My Country – 2006

Synopsis: Primarily follows a Sunni doctor in his efforts to adapt to life under US occupation and establish himself in local politics. There is some side-plot coverage of US military prisons and independent contractor security of the 2004 elections.

Review: This film does something I think very few people in the U.S. have tried to do: examine occupied Iraq from the perspective of ordinary Iraqis. It is very personal and in depth. For that reason the criticism that this is an inadequately small (perspective) chronicle is a fundamental misunderstanding what the film is presenting.

A key point is that this really is an edited story, in a narrative sense with all the components with which that entails - a plot and subplots, characters, plot devices, symbolism, a climax, etc. Although it does limitedly follow coalition efforts leading up to the election, I don’t think it should be approached as an unbiased educational film.

Still, that doesn’t negate its relevance or mean that you won’t learn anything or become more enlightened to the situation in Iraq. There are moments in the film which do more to dispel the ignorance and myths surrounding this complex conflict than any short, clichéd ‘in-depth’ nightly news report could ever do. In fact, I think viewing the Iraqi people on a human scale, as individuals, is something that’s very hard to do for Americans, given the nature of the debate about the war and the media coverage.

But I think that the amazing and sincere people this film follows, particularly the main character Dr. Riyadh, accomplish just that. The way that Dr. Riyadh and his family deal with the circumstances brought about by this conflict are humanizing and can even allow one, however distant to the war, to relate to their thoughts, actions, and aspirations.

Conclusion: If you want to witness a powerful, subtle, engrossing, real, tragic, and at times heart warming story, from a critically important yet all too often ignored and overlooked perspective, then rent this movie.

8/10

======The War Tapes – 2006

Synopsis: Simple enough – give New Hampshire National guardsmen cameras to document their own tour. It primarily focuses on the stories of three soldiers in this unit.


Review: Very much a human drama more-so than a documentary. It’s not as adrenaline pumped as the preview makes it seem. In fact I think there are only a few minutes of combat footage towards the end of the movie, marking a somewhat disturbing and revealing almost anti-climax. It's not incredibly enlightening, but like in real life, there are poignant moments and insights.

I found the most interesting and insightful person followed in the film was Sgt.Zack Bazzi who immigrated to the US from Lebanon when he was young. The comments his mother makes are touching and striking. She recounts that moving to America to escape civil war allowed her to achieve prosperity, but now she is in despair because the one thing that truly matters, her son, is in "the most dangerous" country in the world.

I especially appreciate how the film follows up on the soldiers after they return from their deployment. Given that the film was produced with a lot of editing and splicing, it is disjointed at times with no real flow. Despite this it feels “true” and unfettered.

Conclusion: An apolitical and realistic snapshot from the perspectives of American soldiers and their families.

7/10

======Control Room –
2004

Synopsis: Follows the Arab news organization Al Jazeera at the US Central Command post during the 2003 lead-up and invasion of Iraq. It explores the theme of perspective in media coverage during war.

Review: I would go on a political rant about how even now the perpetrators of the Iraq war fail to fully recognize or live up to the ignorance and naiveté that created this disaster. But that would completely distract from the film right? Oops… too late.

Whatever your viewpoints, whether super liberal or diehard neoconservative, this film deserves to be seen. It emphasizes an important, if cliched, point that our sources of information are naturally and unavoidably skewed. But it does so about a topic at the center of importance in the US and examines, with startling foreboding and clarity, the problems with this issue long before the insurgency and civil war in Iraq finally brought the US out of the clouds (clout).

As is now evident, sometimes it’s useful to replace ones own bias with that of someone else’s. Al Jazeera presented challenging footage and questions about the war that the Western media generally glossed over or ignored at the time; while it still stayed as objectively fair as is possible. Case and point, in the film an Al Jazeera editor refused to interview a US scholar whose argument was that the “war is all about oil”, because he didn’t have a rational/balanced viewpoint.

Throughout the film, Al Jazeera finds popular and reasonable voices of opposition to the war, not from Baathist supporters or ‘radicals’, but from moderates in the Arab world. They give a voice of opposition that doesn’t stem from American’s concern for “our” safety and “our” costs, but of those of the Iraqi people. The film is full of insightful comments, harrowing characters, and real emotion. Most importantly, it presents the war from an Arab perspective.

One of the most enlightening moments in the film for me occurred shortly after images (broadcast on Al Jazeera) are shown of dead American soldiers. I was deeply distraught and saddened by them. Following this is an interview with Marine Joshua Rushing, who makes a comment that he too was made “sick to [his] stomach” by the POW images. But then he recounts the images of dead Iraqi civilians he had seen footage of earlier in the week in the Western and Arab media outlets. He remarks that “it upset me on a profound level that I wasn’t bothered as much” by viewing those images, as it did viewing the American POWs.

Sure the Western media reports on “collateral damage” –sometimes even phrasing it as civilian casualties – but I find (as an American) it’s hard to relate to that on a personal level. It’s not racism or ignorance, it’s just a sad fact of human nature. Cultures and peoples fundamentally different and distant are harder to relate to emotionally. This sadly lessen the “impact” and distorts difficult value judgments.

Not everyone feels that way obviously. However, experiencing that emotion and that epiphany did help change, if only slightly, the way I felt about the war. It might not change your opinion on the war, but it’s a fascinating documentary.

Conclusion: One of the best films I’ve ever seen. A critically important and extremely relevant film to the current Iraq war and US occupation. It asks the important question of “Why?”, albeit far too late for us to notice.

“All that will be left from this war are just scripts and some history books, and that's it. Life will continue. We'll go on. There will be other problems, there will be other things to think about. There will be one single thing that will be left: victory, and that's it. People like victory, they don't like justifications. You don't have to justify it, once you are victorious, that's it.” - Samir Khader

10/10

P.S. –There are plenty of valid rebuttals to the “Al Jazeera is Al-Qaeda’s mouthpiece” in the Control Room Post already, so please read those before you make an ignorant comment. Like others have said, Al Jazeera is a news organization who has to appeal to their audience and so they aren’t any more or less biased than a news program that appeals to a different audience. I don’t want my news censored and restricted, whether it is from Al Jazeera, the AP, or Murdoch; but I can understand why people would prefer it that way.

====== Promises

Synopsis: from IMDB: “Several Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence. Written by Sujit R. Varma”

Review: Yet another film that deals with, you guessed it, cultural clashes between the West and Muslim Middle East. This time though, the West is represented by Israel. I think the Palestine issue isn’t just relevant to the War on Terror, it’s of central significance. While this documentary is certainly informative, it’s value – for me at least—was in the way that the oppressive complexities of this conflict are juxtaposed with the innocence of childhood friendship.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this documentary, too long, so my comments won’t be very detailed. I do remember this being the most heart-wrenching documentary I’ve ever seen. Maybe the only one that made me cry. Then again, I’m very interested in the Palestinian-Israel issue, and the Middle East in general (as you can tell), so I have a lot of bias invested. Still this is a warming, if tragic, documentary that doesn’t eschew politics, but it doesn’t make them front and center either. Rather, it demonstrates the bleakness of fate that comes with growing up embroiled in an inescapable contentious political deluge.

Conclusion: Very much a narrative, with political and social overtones, that touches on universal themes of friendship, conflict, the loss of innocence, and the divisive perils of social history and institutions.

10/10


======Wish-list:
Turtles Can Fly (2005)
Iraq in Fragments (2006)
Voices of Iraq (2004)
No End In Sight (2007)

*Also – I need HELP with this one. I saw this title on the shelf at blockbuster, a new release ( in July-August of 2007), but I can’t remember the title. The synopsis was that it followed an Iraqi who joined the insurgency after his brother was killed by US forces.

** Feel free to comment about documentaries you’ve seen that may not be relevant to the “War on Terror”, as it’s called…, but you think fit in or that I’d find interesting .

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