Iraq films are difficult to sell in US
April 26th, 2007 by Zsofia
The New York Times carries an article today about the fate of documentary films made in or on Iraq. Apparently, many Iraq-themed films, including John Laurence’s recent “I am an American Soldier,” which follows members of the elite 101st Airborne Division on a year-long tour of duty in Iraq, have had a difficult time finding a distributor.
“The film has been seen by some people in the distribution business and they all tell us that Iraq war films don’t do well,” Laurence told journalists before his film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this week.
Laurence is an established journalist and war correspondent who covered Vietnam and was embedded with US troops in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. He said he did not intend for his film to take a clear pro- or anti-war stance. “We set out to make a film from the soldiers’ point of view that was not going to be political,” he told the New York Times.
The film offers an unusually intimate portrait of a small group of men before, during and after their deployment. There are scenes of wives holding back tears as their loved ones leave, and towards the end a father sobbing at a memorial service for the 18 members of the unit who did not come back.
But while it shows the soldiers’ human side — such as when an army medic weeps after failing to save an Iraqi child killed by a suicide car bomb — the film also depicts failures and frustrations. “We found out that the soldiers are not fighting for their country, they’re not proud to be there because they’re fighting for fellow Americans. They’re in Iraq to survive and try to save each other if they can,” the filmmaker said.
“They go to war expecting to make a difference, to serve their country, to kill a lot of insurgents, to help win the war, advance the cause, and train up the Iraqis,” he said. “And they end up after a year realizing that’s not going to happen and that’s the tragedy of their experience in Iraq.”
