R
Republican Party Reptile
Guest
After so much propaganda, finally we have a documentary worth seeing: VOICES OF IRAQ
WEB SITE: http://www.voicesofiraq.com/
"Voices of Iraq" is a must-see for anyone still coming to terms with the chaos in Iraq.
San Francisco Chronicle, October 29, 2004
f this film cannot claim to represent the political "truth" about the war - what film could? - it certainly provides a broad glimpse of daily life in Iraq.
The New York Times, October 29, 2004
In a season of political documentaries that take one side or the other on the war in Iraq, a film has emerged whose purpose is not to address American politics but the Iraqi people.
Variety, October 17, 2004
Consider the NY Times review:
For the Iraqis Interviewed, Daily Life Is Better Today
By DANA STEVENS
rom April to September this year the producers of "Voices of Iraq" - Archie Drury, a former United States marine and gulf war veteran, and Eric Manes and Martin Kunert, two filmmakers educated at New York University - distributed 150 digital video cameras to Iraqi citizens and encouraged them to make their own movies.
The cameras were passed from hand to hand throughout the country and were used by more than 2,000 Iraqis. The resulting 450 hours have been edited down to this 85-minute documentary, a music-video-like collage (fittingly enough, since Mr. Manes and Mr. Kunert have both worked at MTV) of dirty jokes, angry rants, reminiscence and thoughtful testimony from a huge and diverse sampling of Iraqi men, women and children.
Except for a few Iraqi political and media figures, the speakers are not identified. For their brief moments on screen widows weep, children laugh and new college graduates dance and throw confetti. With no voice-over or narrative to hold it together, the film is dizzyingly chaotic, at times exuberant, at times numbing. The only continuing commentary comes from the American newspaper headlines that periodically appear at the bottom of the screen, usually in ironic counterpoint to the image. "Fear of Militias Forces Iraqis to Stay Home'' reads one headline under a busy street scene of people shopping and selling their wares.
With all this overwhelming stimuli scored to the throbbing rhythms of a Canadian-Iraqi hip-hop group called Euphrates, it takes a good hour to begin to notice that the general view of the American occupation being put forth by the speakers is positive - a majority of voices affirm that life under the American occupation, however precarious, is preferable to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. How much of this is attributable to the filmmakers' editing choices, of course, is unknown. But if this film cannot claim to represent the political "truth" about the war - what film could? - it certainly provides a broad glimpse of daily life in Iraq. There are communities of former marsh dwellers in the south whose way of life was destroyed when Mr. Hussein drained the marshes to make policing the territory easier. In the north, Kurdish refugees who have been relocated to a stadium speak matter-of-factly of the atrocities they suffered under him.
The Washington Times recently included "Voices of Iraq" in a roundup of conservative-leaning documentaries while maintaining that the film was "neither partisan nor conservative in any meaningful sense." In the end, "Voices of Iraq'' reminds the viewer that, in cinema as in politics, every storyteller invents his own truth.
Voices of Iraq
Opens today in Manhattan; Atlanta; New Orleans; Dallas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Madison, Wis.; St. Louis; Minneapolis; and Washington
Filmed and directed by Iraqi citizens; edited and produced by Eric Manes, Martin Kunert and Archie Drury; released by Magnolia Films. At Landmark's Sunshine Cinema, 139-143 East Houston Street, East Village. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
WEB SITE: http://www.voicesofiraq.com/
"Voices of Iraq" is a must-see for anyone still coming to terms with the chaos in Iraq.
San Francisco Chronicle, October 29, 2004
f this film cannot claim to represent the political "truth" about the war - what film could? - it certainly provides a broad glimpse of daily life in Iraq.
The New York Times, October 29, 2004
In a season of political documentaries that take one side or the other on the war in Iraq, a film has emerged whose purpose is not to address American politics but the Iraqi people.
Variety, October 17, 2004
Consider the NY Times review:
For the Iraqis Interviewed, Daily Life Is Better Today
By DANA STEVENS
rom April to September this year the producers of "Voices of Iraq" - Archie Drury, a former United States marine and gulf war veteran, and Eric Manes and Martin Kunert, two filmmakers educated at New York University - distributed 150 digital video cameras to Iraqi citizens and encouraged them to make their own movies.
The cameras were passed from hand to hand throughout the country and were used by more than 2,000 Iraqis. The resulting 450 hours have been edited down to this 85-minute documentary, a music-video-like collage (fittingly enough, since Mr. Manes and Mr. Kunert have both worked at MTV) of dirty jokes, angry rants, reminiscence and thoughtful testimony from a huge and diverse sampling of Iraqi men, women and children.
Except for a few Iraqi political and media figures, the speakers are not identified. For their brief moments on screen widows weep, children laugh and new college graduates dance and throw confetti. With no voice-over or narrative to hold it together, the film is dizzyingly chaotic, at times exuberant, at times numbing. The only continuing commentary comes from the American newspaper headlines that periodically appear at the bottom of the screen, usually in ironic counterpoint to the image. "Fear of Militias Forces Iraqis to Stay Home'' reads one headline under a busy street scene of people shopping and selling their wares.
With all this overwhelming stimuli scored to the throbbing rhythms of a Canadian-Iraqi hip-hop group called Euphrates, it takes a good hour to begin to notice that the general view of the American occupation being put forth by the speakers is positive - a majority of voices affirm that life under the American occupation, however precarious, is preferable to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. How much of this is attributable to the filmmakers' editing choices, of course, is unknown. But if this film cannot claim to represent the political "truth" about the war - what film could? - it certainly provides a broad glimpse of daily life in Iraq. There are communities of former marsh dwellers in the south whose way of life was destroyed when Mr. Hussein drained the marshes to make policing the territory easier. In the north, Kurdish refugees who have been relocated to a stadium speak matter-of-factly of the atrocities they suffered under him.
The Washington Times recently included "Voices of Iraq" in a roundup of conservative-leaning documentaries while maintaining that the film was "neither partisan nor conservative in any meaningful sense." In the end, "Voices of Iraq'' reminds the viewer that, in cinema as in politics, every storyteller invents his own truth.
Voices of Iraq
Opens today in Manhattan; Atlanta; New Orleans; Dallas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Madison, Wis.; St. Louis; Minneapolis; and Washington
Filmed and directed by Iraqi citizens; edited and produced by Eric Manes, Martin Kunert and Archie Drury; released by Magnolia Films. At Landmark's Sunshine Cinema, 139-143 East Houston Street, East Village. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
