Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Iraq in Fragments / USA/Iraq / 2006

It’s the end of the month so I should probably provide an update of what films I’ve seen in May.

James Longley’s documentary is certainly cinematic. It’s visuals of Iraq’s various geographic and cultural regions are gorgeous and striking, whether they be captured in decaying Sunni streets, grand Shiite mosques, or hazy Kurdish landscapes. It’s unquestionably a beautiful film in terms of cinematography. However, his choices in editing and voice-over narration create a film that feels illusory, if not downright deceptive.

My apprehension regarding the film started almost immediately. In the opening moments of the film we are shown footage of a bustling Iraqi street, where it becomes more than apparent that a certain degree of infrastructure was present. I’ve been told since that this was footage that Longley shot in 2002, before the US armed forces began their military operations in Iraq. However, it really could be from any other time, including the present.

Suspect chronology aside (since that’s not really a reason to condemn the film, especially given that Longley has a credible explanation), the main problem I encountered during the film was Longley’s focus on children and their lack of a prosperous future. Not only do I find this slightly manipulative, considering we are repeatedly asked to consider how life has forced them into early adulthood and how destitute their destinies are, but the methods of filmmaking started feeling devious once I noticed that both of the children had very little on-screen dialogue. Instead, Longley decides to have both boys narrate their segments through off-camera voice-over work. It certainly adds style to Longley’s film (in fact I started getting a very Michael Mann-ish vibe after awhile), but in making his documentary more stylish and cinematic, Longley’s doc seems to loose a bit of integrity. Since the film avoids direct interviews on camera, it’s hard not to wonder if these boys were coaxed or coached a bit regarding what to say in order to make their fragments more moving for the audience. Certainly this might just be my own bias towards straight information rather than cinematic style when viewing documentaries, but this also appears to be an inherent trade-off between substance and elegance that is difficult for me to swallow, especially for such a hot-button topic.

My concerns were also not alleviated by the (rather frustrating) Q & A session with Longley that the HotDocs Festival held afterwards. During the discussion, Longley mentioned that he did interview a few Iraqis that were working with the US armed forces, but he decided not to include these citizens in his doc because they appeared to simply be “self-hating Iraqis” who considered their own culture to be uncivilized. Longley then mentioned that he didn’t feel the need to include their perspectives because he didn’t want to spend a lengthy amount of time interviewing subjects that he really didn’t get along with. I can understand his reluctance to hang out for weeks with people he doesn’t actually care for. However, I find it odd, not to mention slightly troubling, that he seems so casual about not including such a perspective within his documentary considering that these opinions are so drastically different from the ones he chooses to include.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Daylight Factory/Typecast Pictures 35mm Print
31 May 2006 6:10 PM | Submit Comment