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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraq Through Iraqi Eyes |
| 2004-12-16 |
| A YEAR AFTER Saddam Hussein was captured, how goes the liberation of Iraq?snip Last spring, three enterprising Americans -- filmmakers Eric Manes and Martin Kunert, both former producers for MTV, and Gulf War veteran Archie Drury, a former Marine -- decided to find out [what Iraqis think about their liberation.] They distributed 150 digital video recorders to ordinary Iraqis and asked them to film anyone or anything they thought worthwhile -- and then pass the camera on to someone else. From April to September, the cameras traveled from hand to hand through every region of the country. What eventually came back to the three Americans was 450 hours of raw video recorded by more than 2,000 Iraqis from all walks of life -- and not one frame of it influenced by an outside director or crew. Edited down to a taut 80 minutes, the result -- "Voices of Iraq" -- is a gripping documentary that for the first time shows Iraq as even the most skillful American journalist will never be able to show it: through the eyes and ears of Iraq's people. "Voices of Iraq" is by turns heartbreaking, exhilarating, and inspiring. The war and its destruction is never far from the surface. One of the opening scenes is of a car bombing in Sadr City, and when a little girl is asked, "What do you want to tell the world about Iraq?" her answer is poignant: "These explosions are hurting everyone." snip There is even footage -- supplied, Drury told NPR, by a sheik from Fallujah -- of insurgents preparing a bomb. But bad as the war is, the horror it ended -- Saddam's 24-year reign -- was worse. In the film, a young Kurdish mother tells her daughter, who is wielding the camcorder, how she would burn herself with cigarettes to prepare for the torture she knew was coming. snip One man explains that Saddam's son Uday "used to come often to Ravad Street -- every Thursday for the market -- to choose a girl to rape." A few brief clips are shown from a captured Fedayeen Saddam videotape: A blindfolded victim thrown to his death from a rooftop, a man's hand getting severed, someone's tongue being cut out. It isn't hard to understand the emotions of the man who answers, when asked how he reacted to the news of Saddam's capture, "I danced like this! I kept dancing. Then I cried." Yet for all they have been through, Iraqis come across as incredibly optimistic, hopeful, and enthusiastic. And above all, normal. In "Voices of Iraq" they film themselves flying on rides in an amusement park, dancing the night away at a graduation party, taking their kids to a playground, shopping for cellphones. A police officer mugs for the camera. Shoppers throng the streets of Suleimaniyah. A scrawny kid pumps iron with a makeshift barbell -- and gives a shout out to Arnold Schwarzenegger. ("I like your movies. You're a good actor. Can you please send me some real weights?") Iraqis haven't had much experience with democracy, but we see the delight they take in the new opportunities Saddam's defeat is making possible. Two women celebrate the freedom to get a passport. An artist talks proudly about work for which he went to prison. A young woman says her dream is to be a lawyer. One rough-looking fellow says simply, "I wish for a government elected by the Iraqi people." Yes, it's a liberation. And the men and women we liberated, it turns out, are people just like us. The headlines dwell on the bad news, and the bad news is certainly real. But things are looking up in Iraq, as the Iraqis themselves will be happy to tell you. All someone had to do was ask. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #5 Don't get too excited. Jacoby's their token conservative. I'm sure this all went into his file. In red. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-16 9:00:07 PM |
| #4 This article got published in the Boston Globe? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-12-16 7:39:09 PM |
| #3 Apparently the distribution was screwed up: poor PR efforts, only a handful of cities screened it, and release was drowned out by the election and the World Series. The distribution company's owned by Mark Cuban. I'd like to be able to see all of the footage. Wonder how much they'd sell the rights for? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-16 6:55:09 PM |
| #2 I like the premise of cameras everywhere, but the editors still were all powerful. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-16 6:31:02 PM |
| #1 But what about the important gatekeeper function of the media? What about [cue Dan Rather] context and analysis? How crude: I bet not one of those people has a Journalism degree, either. Think of the chaos when anybody with a video camera can shoot film and call it "news". /sarc Here's hoping this is another splash of cold water in the MSM's face. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2004-12-16 5:39:34 PM |