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TRANSCRIPT
War in Documentary Theatre and Film
Stephen Howell Alex Ghaffari Wri4ng 20
10 December 2010
2010 Fes8val Guide
Contents
The Theme of War…………………………………………2
Featured Plays……………………………………………….3 Featured Films……………………………………………….4 Play Lis4ng……………………………………………………. 5
Film Lis4ng…………………………………………………….6 Community Partners…………………………………….. 7
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This documentary fes4val is increasingly relevant as the United States operates in wars across the globe, and as other na4ons struggle in conflicts. This fes4val is intending to enlighten people to acknowledge that most of what they know about war, and their associated aStudes, are a product of the media, including documentaries and plays designed to educate. North Carolina is the home many military bases and has a high veteran percentage. We hope this fes4val not calls aUen4on not only to war, but veterans and their issues.
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The Theme of War
In shaping our own Theater and Film Fes4val of North Carolina, Stephen and I wanted to display the simplicity and straighWorward nature of the genre and its ability to get the truth across without excess informa4on. On the other hand, however, such works within this genre form a “crea4ve reality”; a world in which true events are recounted but not lacking a crea4ve or visionary seSng in which the events take place. Thus it is important that we show these films and plays not only for their historical relevance and basic truth but also for their success in balancing this important historical accuracy with the ar4s4c visions of the director. It is this balance that all documentary filmmakers or playwrights must strive for when they are challenged to create a believable world of truth as well as an ar4s4cally interes4ng and aUen4on-‐grabbing piece.
Our fes4val is based on the widespread phenomenon of war. It seems as though at any given 4me in the world’s history, one group of people or another is at war. It was a necessary task, therefore, for our selected directors to capture the essence of this terrible epidemic; the bloodshed, terror, desola4on, and lastly, displacement. Stephen and I found that in all of our selected works, the idea of people being displaced by war was a common theme. A"ermath by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, along with Iraq in Fragments by James Longley, document Iraqis forced to the fringes of Baghdad and even neighboring Jordan. My Name is Rachel Corrie by Katharine Viner and Gaza Strip also by Longley illustrate the trials and tribula4ons that na4ve Pales4nians experience. And so, we are going to focus on not only the devasta4ng effects of modern warfare but in addi4on delve into the lives of many ci4zens of various warzones who were forced to leave their homeland for safer territory.
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Featured Plays The Voice of the Civilians
The Uninten8onal Autobiography
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s documentary play en4tled A"ermath gives a voice to the na4ve Iraq ci4zens who might not have had the chance to speak in the past. With their lives violently interrupted by the United States military invasion in March of 2003, hundreds of innocent civilians were forced to leave their homes and flee to nearby Jordan. Blank and Jensen interview dozens of these people; once a rela4vely content group of Iraqis under the imperfect, but in their eyes, bearable regime of Saddam. Only the Iraqis’ side of the interviews are included in the play, crea4ng the powerful effect of the actors speaking directly to the audience. Blank and Jensen also include much Arabic language to add authen4city to their produc4on. Throughout the play, the audience learns about the refugees’ rela4vely peaceful living situa4on before the occupa4on and how that all changed in a maUer of months seven years ago. We meet people like Rafiq, a
Middle seven years ago. We meet people like Rafiq, a middle aged pharmacist from the Baghdad area who fled his business and his home, not before witnessing the gruesome death of his young nephew at the hands of United States soldiers. Another man, Adbdul-‐Aliyy, an imam at the mosque of Fallujah, was apprehended by American forces and detained at Abu Ghraib, a prison outside of Baghdad in which the United States military inflicted physical and psychological abuse on the detainees. As a viewer of A"ermath, it is difficult to feel no sympathy for the displaced ci4zens of Iraq. March 20, 2003 was a day that altered their lives forever.
In the one-‐woman play, writers Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner channel the voice of Rachel Corrie. Corrie made interna4onal headlines in 2003 ajer she was crushed to death by an
an Israeli bulldozer while protes4ng the demoli4on of a Pales4nian home. Corrie grew up in Washington, and aUended Evergreen State College where she took a year off to do peace work. The twenty-‐three-‐year-‐old traveled the Gaza Strip in, as part of the Interna4onal
Solidarity Movement, which uses “direct ac4ons” tac4cs to help Pales4nians during the Second Infi4da. The Pales4nian-‐Israeli conflict has been burning for centuries, and the Gaza Strip, the home of many Pales4nians, is at the heart of it. Her death not only renewed American’s interest in the area, it also create controversy over how liable the Israeli Defense Force was. To this day, Rachel’s parents are involved in lawsuits surrounding Rachel’s death. However, Rickman and Viner take an alternate route through her life and illustrate Rachel’s internal conflicts and the months before her death. The play uses only Rachel’s personal journals, diaries, and emails for material, crea4ng a clear picture into Rachel’s mind, absent of outside bias. Thus, My Name is Rachel Corrie is able to reveal her childhood ambi4ons to end world hunger, her strong poli4cal views, and her shock at the war-‐torn Gaza Strip.
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Featured Films Turning a Blind Eye Ghosts of Rwanda is a PBS Frontline documentary film on the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Created in honor of the tenth anniversary of the horrific period of murder in Rwanda, the film examines the events and decisions made during and ajer 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were ruthlessly murdered by Hutu extremist tribe members. The film provides an eyewitness account of the genocide including interviews with members of the Tutsi tribe who saw dear friends and family brutally killed and United Na4ons and United States officials. Specifically, then-‐president Bill Clinton was interviewed at length. In the interview, he explains to the world why the United States did not want to get too involved in the Rwandan genocide, as he believed it was too soon ajer their involvement in Somalia to jump immediately to another tense situa4on in Africa. Madeline Albright, former Ambassador to the United Na4ons, also tries to jus4fy the organiza4on’s lack of assistance for the helpless Tutsi tribe members when she says that she and the United Na4ons did not realize how serious the bloodshed and warfare in Rwanda had goUen and that the U.N.’s stance on the maUer would have been much different if supplied with accurate informa4on. The head of the Red Cross in Rwanda, however, insists in his interview that all par4es, including the United States military and the United Na4ons, were supplied with adequate intelligence concerning the events in Rwanda and that they simply chose to turn a blind eye. Some argue that the brutal genocide unfolded too quickly for anyone to seriously help the warring tribes. It is clear from viewing this film, however, that the most capable military powers in the world knowingly stood aside while hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians died.
War in All Its Causali8es
Featuring countless interviews and eye-‐opening footage, Gaza Strip leads the audience deep into the Israeli-‐Pales4nian conflict to the streets of Gaza. The film opens with the story of Mohhamed Hejazi, a thirteen-‐year-‐old paperboy who dropped out of school in second grade out of boredom and a need to provide for his family. Longley follows Hejazi as he navigates the dangerous around the dangerous area, in an all-‐too calm manner. Herjazi proves to be a unique protagonist for the film; He has a very raw knowledge of poli4cs in the region, and the Israeli Defense Force shot and killed his best friend when they were eleven. The film digresses to other Pales4nian vic4ms, and the audience meets a convincing amount of refugees and families displaced by he crisis. Gaza Strip doesn’t shy away from violence and at 4mes is very graphic. In one scene Longley shows the corpse of a children blown by a bomb; in another he shows wailing pa4ents experiencing seizures in a hospital ajer an IDF gas aUack on a Gaza street. The sense of reality in the film is coupled by Longley’s decision to withhold narra4on and film en4rely with a hand-‐held camera. With a backdrop of market squares and crumbling houses, the plight of Pales4nians in Gaza is revealed in a very convincing fashion.
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Play Lis8ng
Jonathan Holmes’ documentary play, Fallujah, captures the bloody siege of Fallujah in 2004. Called “theatrical and an4-‐war,” the play recorded eyewitness accounts from various Bri4sh and American military personnel who not only had a front row seat to the violence that ensued but also the toll the intense siege took on the innocent na4ves of the region and their struggle to escape the bloodshed.
Fallujah
My Name is Rachel Corrie
ALermath
In Conflict
Blank and Jensen’s documentary play, A"ermath, is dis4lled from their on-‐site 2008 interviews and focuses on the disrupted lives of dozens of innocent Iraqi refugees, now living in Jordan. Reviewed here, the play shows that the violence occurring in Baghdad star4ng in 2003 proved too dangerous for these na4ves; some family members were even lost before leaving. Their only choice was to desert their homeland. Longley’s documentary film en4tled
Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner’s My Name is Rachel Corrie is the story of Rachel Corrie, from her childhood in Washington to her death thousands of miles away on the Gaza Strip. The play has was received with both cri4cism and acclaim and was pain4ng as a striking portrait of the Israeli-‐Pales4nian crisis. The theme of war is dominated during Rachel’s 4me in Gaza, and she is constantly reminded of its effects and implica4ons.
Inconflict compiles the stories of seventeen veterans from the Iraq War and details how their lives have been forever changed by the conflict. It takes a different approach than the other war documentaries; instead of focusing on people in wars, Inconflict centers on veterans and their struggles upon returning home. The film has a wide scope of subjects, from across different backgrounds, with one thing in common: their lives will never be the same. Reviews described the "overwhelming loneliness" and changing aStudes of veterans.
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Film Lis8ng
Ghosts of Rwanda by PBS Frontline’s Greg Barker, illustrates the journey of Rwandan Tutsi refugees in the midst of the Rwandan genocide between the warring Hutu and Tutsi tribes and the inac4on of the United States and United Na4ons forces in 1994. The film, reviewed here, includes first hand accounts of the genocide from people who lived through it were gathered, including interviews with Tutsi tribe members who witnessed the brutal slaughtering of friends and family members. Jonathan Holmes’ documentary play, Fallujah, captures the bloody siege of Fallujah in 2004. Called “theatrical and an4-‐war,” the play recorded eyewitness accounts from various Bri4sh and American military personnel who not only had a front row seat to the violence that ensued but also the toll the intense siege took on the innocent na4ves of the region and their struggle to escape the bloodshed.
Death in Gaza
Ghosts of Rwanda
Iraq in Fragments
Gaza Strip
Iraq in Fragments, called “outstanding,” examines war torn Iraq in three parts: an 11 year old auto-‐mechanic from the predominately Sunni region of Baghdad, a Shiite poli4cal-‐religious movement of Moqtada Sadr, and a Kurdish family who moved to a farm south of Abril. The audience of this film sees both how local people living in Baghdad are confined to certain areas of the city and also how one family relocates to another, more rural town. In both works, the lives and loca4ons of the human subjects are altered because of the war. They are forced to leave their homes in addi4on to having to deal with the United States occupa4on and violence in the area.
This engaging film illustrates the blindness of war firsthand, and the con4nuous danger state its vic4ms live in. James Miller, the cameraman for this film, dies during the filming, ajer he was shot in the neck. In a narra4ve that became all too real, Death in Gaza captures the essence of what it means to be a child growing up amid perpetual terror. The film con4nues to be relevant today, and it won many awards, including three Emmys.
Gaza Strip is Longley’s portrayal of the Israeli-‐Pales4nian conflict, and centers around thirteen-‐year-‐old paperboy Mohammed Herjazi. The film was accidental; Longley went to Gaza too shoot preliminary footage for another film, but desired to stay ajer mee4ng Mohammed and witness the opportunity in documen4ng the buildup to the elec4on of Ariel Sharon. The film shows the "wrenching human reality" Pales4nian residents of Gaza are caught in. Gaza Strip also invokes deeper convic4ons, as the audience learns of Mohammed’s jus4fica4on for “throwing stones” and stealing, against his father’s wishes.
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Community Partners
Eric Greitens James Longley Clay Johnson
Duke ROTC Units Military Reporters & Editors
Durham Performing Arts Center
MRE is an group of reporters, editors, photographers, television news people, educators, re4red journalists, college students and those who cover or are interested in na4onal security and veterans issues
Eric Greitens was an Angier B. Duke and Rhodes Scholar at Duke University, and went on to become a Navy SEAL, being deployed 4 4mes during the Global War on Terrorism, where he earned numerous medals. His photo-‐essay book, Strength and Compassion, focused how aid can best help children in war-‐torn countries. He has since been apopinted a White House Fellow and founded the non-‐point The Mission Con4nues.
Duke is the home of three Reserve Officer Training BaUalions, that train the next genera4on of military officers. They are heavily involved with veterans groups in the community and volunteering in the community.
Clay Johnson is a visi4ng lecturer in public policy at Duke’s DeWiU Wallace Center for Media & Democracy. He has won numerous awards as a documentary reporter and television journalism. He specializes in the produc4on of television documentaries and established Clay Johnson Produc4on in 1996.
Clay Johnson is an awarded winning filmmaker, who has extensively done work in the Middle Easy. He made Iraq in Fragments and Gaza Strip, both featured in this fes4val. His most recent work was in Iran, where he was arrested along with his translator. In 2009, the MacArther Fellowship award Johnson the $500,000 Genius Grant.
DPAC is the premier performing arts center in Central North Carolina. They feature over 150 events a year and over volunteering posi4ons to local students and community members.