iraq

Kuwait Bans Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11": August 3, 2004

"The Saudi Arabian royal family have blasted Michael Moore for his controversial documentary, 'Fahrenheit 9/11', calling it 'insulting' while the government in neighbouring Kuwait has banned the film. [...] The state-owned Kuwait National Cinema Company had applied for a licence to show 'Fahrenheit 9/11', but its request was turned down by government censors. However, it is currently being shown in other Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates and the Lebanon."
[MediaBulletin]

"After 9|11": Documentary Film Released On DVD: July 14, 2004

"The critically acclaimed documentary 'After 9/11' has been released for general audiences and is now available for purchase through the Information Technology, War, and Peace (InfoTechWarPeace) Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.Combining critical dialogue, conceptual analysis, and a montage of multimedia, After9/11 anticipates many of the recent revelations about the darker side of the war against terror, and, in a reflective postscript, provides a positive vision for moving America beyond 9/11. [...] the hour-long film tracks the emergence of an Age of InfoTerror, from the terrorist attack of September 2001 to the information war leading up to the Iraq War. Two opposing voices guide the viewer through a richly visual and openly critical appraisal of the current political landscape. The first is a selection of national security speeches by President Bush, which provide a chronology for the evolution of a US government policy after 911. The second voice is novelist and Brown professor, Robert Coover, who uses a powerful dream narration to frame a montage of the technologies of war, media, and surveillance that have overtaken more human concerns."
[After 9|11 Web Site]

Soldier Personal Videocam Commentary in CBS News Report: Date Unknown

This link was forwarded to Camera/Iraq without reference to its original context. It is posted on CBS News.com and is part of a Dan Rather report. It presents personal videocam footage—forbidden by the military—by a soldier who discusses her experience and attitudes with Rather. [Please forward additional info to Camera/Iraq]

[CBS News—RealAudio]

PBS' "POV" Presents Esteban Uyarra's "War Feels Like War" [War Photographers in Iraq]: July, 2004

"The Iraq War introduced the concept of the "embedded" reporter to the world. Their highly choreographed, round-the-clock reporting gave the Pentagon extraordinary control of war reports back home, and also allowed the military to quietly contain those journalists who wanted to report the war independently: the so-called "unilaterals." "War Feels Like War" is the story of an international group of journalists who refused to be "embedded." Motivated by the desire to get the 'real' story, the unilaterals ventured onto the battlefield without military protection and frequently without guides. They often found themselves reporting the stories that went uncovered in the wake of the triumphal columns of soldiers and embeds: civilian deaths, injuries, chaos in the streets, and a more mixed reception for the invaders than appeared in first reports. [...] Along the way, "War Feels Like War" gives riveting vérité portraits of the journalists themselves, whose conflicting feelings of attraction and repulsion to combat mirror the ambivalence of their audiences over modern-day "war as spectacle." The journalists are alternately cynical about human motives and seduced by the romanticism of being war correspondents. Thoughts of self-importance are punctured by the grim realities of war. Their daring is in constant tension with the impulse for self-preservation. 'This is the story of journalists caught up in a new era in war-reporting, says director and cameraman Esteban Uyarra, 'and of a media world now divided in two camps — 'embeds' and 'unilaterals' — and what that means for how we see and feel about war.'"
[POV "War Feels Like War" Site]
[Film Synopsis]
[Discuss the film]
[Rent from Netflix]

Jamie Doran's "Massacre at Mazar" [2002] Independent Documentary Run by the CBC-Canada

"A documentary film by Scottish filmmaker Jamie Doran titled "Massacre at Mazar" offers eyewitness testimony and film footage of human remains and mass graves of what may be damning evidence of mass killings at Sherberghan and Mazar-I-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan."
[Alternet]

"After screening the videotape last fall, the European Parliament called for an investigation. The United Nations has authorized an official investigation into the film’s allegations, but only if the security of its members can be guaranteed. And security is hard to find in northern Afghanistan. Since this documentary was filmed, eyewitnesses have been tortured. Others have disappeared or been killed."
[Info and links on CBC investigative documentary showcase, Panorama—scroll to "Convoy of Death"]
[Massacre at Mazar—Quicktime]