Gary Dretzka
Noah Forrest
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Douglas Pratt
Ray Pride

The countdown for Election Day 2006 continues apace. For all those Americans eligible to vote in the midterm contest, Digital Nation heartily endorses a slate of recently released DVDs, any one of which might encourage more a turnout of more than 40 percent of the citizenry … except in Chicago, of course, where the usual 120 percent is expected.

We’re of the liberal persuasion here at DN, but that doesn’t mean we’re confident any new Democratic majority would be any less likely to enter into another ill-advised war -- Yugoslavia, anyone? -- than the mopes who gave the Bush administration carte blanche to violate the public trust, in the first place. In the case of the Iraq invasion and occupation, at least, representatives of both parties are equally culpable. It’s only the incumbent Democrats, however, who’ve lately tried to hide the blood stains on their hands.

Since few in the mainstream media seem anxious to cover all sides of the conflagration, we think it’s important that voters understand exactly what’s at stake in a world where terrorism and war have become acceptable substitutes for diplomacy. With Michael Moore taking this election year off, there’s no longer any excuse for citizens of all political persuasions -- and colors, if you happen to be Green or Red -- not to sample one or two of the documentaries that have emerged from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

True believers in both the pro- and anti-war camps will see what they want to see in these documentaries. Americans who remain steadfastly determined to "stay the course" in Iraq will be tempted to dismiss as liberal propaganda those targeting extreme interrogation tactics and flagrant war profiteering. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that die-hard lefties and Bush-bashers might consider the films shot from the point-of-view of American soldiers a tad too gung-ho.

We’re confident, however, Americans who come to them with open minds will leave with a better understanding of what’s occurring half a world away than they might if got their news only from Katie Couric and USA Today. It’s not a pretty picture, but, given what’s at stake, it’s one voters ought to check out before going to the polls on November 7.

Because few, if any, photojournalists and "embedded" reporters have been allowed access to the hot zones of Afghanistan and the interrogation chambers of Iraq, Cuba and God knows where else we‘ve stashed our prisoners, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross were forced to rely on re-creations and interviews for The Road to Guantanamo. At a time when the president and vice president can’t even agree on whether "water-boarding" is torture, Road to Guantanamo comes closest to exposing what happened to some of the small fry who got caught in the net intended to yield the big fish of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Watching American and British intelligence agents torment prisoners we know to be innocent is an unsettling exercise, but until we understand how the guiltless are treated is it possible to set limits on torture for terrorists who clearly are withholding information.

In this specific case, four knuckleheads actually from the West Midlands of England decided to pay a visit to Afghanistan, while already in Pakistan for a wedding planned prior to 9/11. Their side trip coincided with the Allied invasion, putting them directly in the path of forces of the Northern Alliance. The "Tipton Three" were handed over to American intelligence gatherers, who simply assumed they were terrorists and gave them a one-way ticket to Guantánamo Bay. Unknown actors dramatize the events described by Shafiq Rasul, Ruhel Ahmed, and Asif Iqbal in straight-forward interviews, interspersed with home movies and actual news reports from the war zone. Even after American agents learned these men were guilty only of bad travel planning, they were given a choice of becoming informers or continuing their all-expenses-paid stay in cages not fit for dogs bred in captivity.

Instead of raging against these injustices, The Road to Guantanamo allows the story of the Tipton Three to play out on its own. Mainstream American audiences still smarting from 9/11 and the beheadings of Al Qaeda prisoners won’t shed many tears for three embittered guys who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Watch this movie alongside Stalag 17, Hogan’s Heroes and Bridge on the River Kwai, however, and you might wonder if we should expect the same decency of our military that we demanded of the Nazis, North Koreans and Vietnamese holding American POWs.

Robert Greenwald’s Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers tells an equally harrowing story. This one focuses on the multinational corporations whose employees -- a.k.a. "private contractors" -- comprise what effectively is a separate army from the one wearing the colors of the U.S. military. That’s because some of these companies not only provide support in the form of construction workers, auto mechanics and chefs, but also heavily armed guards for diplomats, trainers of Iraqi police and military, and interrogators. Feel free to substitute "mercenary" for "private contractor."

Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton, may be the most notorious of the these corporations, but such lesser-known firms as Titan, CACI, KBR and Blackwater are equally guilty of taking advantage of the situation to rip off American taxpayers. In return for generous campaign donations, each has been awarded no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars, often for work of dubious quality and value to the war effort. While individual soldiers have been jailed for crimes committed in Iraqi prisons, their civilian counterparts have avoided prosecution altogether.

More than a hundred thousand private contractors perform the same tasks -- KP, latrine duty, communications, among them -- draftees routinely were assigned in Vietnam and other previous wars (re-installing the draft would have been a cheaper, if less politically advantageous option). According to testimony recorded by Greenwald, veterans of this private volunteer army -- linguists, truck drivers, carpenters -- often found themselves in the line of deadly insurgent fire without the usual protections afforded soldiers doing the same jobs. Typically, the contractors cut corners when it came to safety and planning, and their employees paid the price.

As such, what’s revealed here should be of equal interest to fiscal conservatives and rabid anti-war activists. Democratic lawmakers are only slightly less guilty than Republicans when it comes to providing a framework for reform and oversight. After 75 minutes, only Halliburton stockholders will find something to smile about in Iraq for Sale.

In The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq, director Andrew Berends describes how the death of one Iraqi civilian created a ripple that threatened to capsize an entire family. Ra’ad al-Azawi, a well-respected portrait photographer, had volunteered to guard a mosque (bombed earlier by Muslims of a rival sect) when shot by American soldiers on patrol. Just as the encounter probably wasn’t all that dissimilar to hundreds of others that have led to unnecessary deaths in the past few years, it’s also possible that the radicalization of family members and friends wasn’t exceptional, either. Maybe so, but few Americans have been allowed to witness not only the outpourings of grief, but also the escalation of violence by survivors. Somehow, Berends was given permission to accompany T-shirt clad insurgents -- willing to take on helicopters and tanks with RPGs and assault rifles -- as well as U.S. soldiers in full battle gear. He also was allowed access to Sadr City, where he filmed a pep rally for the Mehdi Army in anticipation of battles ahead. The camera’s all-seeing eye, along with the filmmaker’s compassionate portrait of a brother who must choose between family and revenge, combine to make The Blood of My Brother a thoroughly unique and important document.

Just as Michael Tucker’s Gunner Palace revealed what life was like for a group of American soldiers stationed in Baghdad early in the occupation, Patricia Foulkrod’s The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends explains in sometimes excruciating detail how otherwise unremarkable teenagers from Anywhere USA are trained specifically to be killers, and what happens to them when they return home. Interspersed with the testimony of veterans -- several of whom were maimed in action -- are sequences shot at boot camp and during recruitment drives. Here, it’s impossible not to draw comparisons to the first half of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. While not nearly as traumatized as Pvt. Pyle, the young men and women interviewed for The Ground Truth have yet to adjust fully to their re-entry from the killing fields. Ignore the promises made in TV ads and by recruiters, they caution, their primary mission was to kill and avoid being killed. If that meant running over a child who stands in the way of a speeding convoy, or blowing the head off an elderly woman slow to heed orders, so be it. Foulkrod doesn’t demonize her subjects, nor does she suggest that any acquired pathology will carry over to life back home. She simply lets the men and women speak for themselves. One wonders, too, what veterans of World War II and Korea might have said if they had allowed themselves to be interviewed about their wartime experiences, instead of keeping their memories bottled up inside them.

PBS’ essential Frontline: The Al Qaeda Files encapsulates six-years’ worth of special investigative reports on the events that led to 9/11, as well as the terrorist organization responsible for it and other attacks. The installments comprise seven hours of DVD time, and all are well worth the effort. The series explains both how we got into the current mess and why the war against terrorism may not end in our lifetimes. After watching the series, you’ll probably know more about Al Qaeda than anyone in the White House, Congress and Pentagon did on 9/10/2001.

One doesn’t have to be a "conspiracy nut" to wonder if the government is playing with a loaded deck when it comes to convincing Americans that war is the only way to solve problems on the international stage. Historians still argue over what, if anything, FDR knew about the inevitability of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" clearly was a ruse to get Congress to approve an escalation of U.S. military activities in Vietnam. In Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism, Internet and radio commentator Alex Jones continues to dredge up theories on U.S, and European involvement in international terrorism, as well as plans for a worldwide police state. He may be a crank, but Bush administration officials continue to promote ideas that make sense only within the context of Jones’ dire prophesies.

There a several other Iraq-related titles already in theatrical release, airing on PBS or about to enter the marketplace. They include The War Tapes, My Country My Country and Iran in Fragments, all of which are spin-free and profoundly moving.

In Deborah Scranton's War Tapes, the cinematography was provided by three members of Charlie Company who placed mini-cams on vehicles, weapons and helmets. The images they’ve captured are as immediate, unexpected and powerful as any bomb timed to detonate upon the passing of a convoy of Halliburton-supplied trucks. Neither were the soldiers’ slack-time conversations and computer communications off-limits. The collaborative effort -- Scranton supervised via e-mail and instant messaging -- provides a provocative and profoundly moving experience.

In My Country My Country, filmmaker Laura Poitras delivers an intimate portrait of Dr, Riyadh al-Adhadh, who, during the 2005 elections, operated a free medical clinic in a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad while also running for political office and treating prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The father of six is an impressive individual and his commitment to the reconstruction of his country and its people is well-documented. It’s the perfect movie to show during the lead-up to an election for which less than half of all American adults will bother to vote.

In Iran in Fragments, James Longley endeavors to paint a portrait of everyday life in Iraq, through the eyes of its citizens and with an eye toward the nation’s diverse geography and cultures. One chapter describes how 14-year-old Mohammed Haithem manages to survive in Baghdad after the disappearance of his parents. Another documents rural life among the Kurds, and the third follows a group of fundamentalist Shiites as they travel from Najaf to Naseriyah to promote a government based on Muslim law, and, along the way, clash with American soldiers.

Already in DVD are Ian Olds’ Occupation: Dreamland, which tags along with a group of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division as they patrol Falloujah, Iraq's "city of mosques"; Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight, which re-interprets President Eisenhower’s fears about the military-industrial complex; and, lest we forget, Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Say what you will about Moore's methodology, box-office stats attest to his ability to attract audiences to political documentaries.

If you’re exhausted by discussions of Iraq and already plan to vote your incumbent congressional representative out of office, there are many other DVDs out there to get the political juices flowing. Among the hot-button issues focused upon are immigration, recent FCC indecency rulings, sex education in schools, voting irregularities, the working poor and civil liberties.

The documentaries Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration and Cochise County USA: Cries from the Border offer decidedly different takes on the debate over undocumented workers and our porous border with Mexico than most theatrical films from Hollywood and indie filmmakers. To some, its conservative message will serve as a corrective to less judgmental examinations of the subject in such films and TV productions as El Norte, Mi Familia, The Beautiful Country, Bread and Roses, Resurrection Blvd. and, even, Cheech & Chong's Born in East L.A. But, then, those willing to believe a 700-mile, tax-payer financed fence will stem the tide of illegal immigrants probably already are well aware of writer-director Kevin Knoblock's arguments.

Robert Greenwald, who produced Iraq for Sale, is a one-man documentary machine, and he has teamed with the American Civil Liberties Union to present The ACLU Freedom Files, for the Disinformation Company. It is a 10-part series of films designed to salute individuals who fought back when they felt their liberties were being eroded. In addition to interviews and archival footage, Freedom Files enlists such outspoken comedians as Lewis Black, Margaret Cho and Judy Gold to comment on a long list of issues, ranging from free speech and gay rights, to religious freedom and the Patriot Act. (In an unusual move, the contents are subtitled not only in Spanish but also in Arabic.)

For some odd reason, the distributors of An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car? have elected to release their exceedingly topical save-the-Earth documentaries in mid-November, well after the election. Perhaps, someone at Blockbuster decided they'd have to give equal shelf space to movies advocating the destruction of the planet. Until then, HBO's similarly green Too Hot Not to Handle will suffice nicely.

Also from Disinformation comes Ian Inaba's American Blackout, a film that attempts to prove that voting irregularities ignored or dismissed by the media have served to disenfranchise tens of thousands of black voters, especially those in Florida and Ohio. The increasingly prolific Docurama sends out The Education of Shelby Knox, which describes one teenage girl's struggle to bring meaningful sex education to schools in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas.

Referendums on gay marriage are on the ballots of several states. It's one of the most divisive issues confronting American voters, especially among those fundamentalists and rednecks who consider homosexuality to be a contagious disease. Wolfe Video, which specializes in titles with gay-lesbian themes, has released Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, which, besides clips from a half-century's worth of independent films, offers the observations of such noteworthy artists as Ang Lee, Alan Cumming, John Cameron Mitchell, John Waters and Gus Van Sant. Gore Vidal narrates HBO's Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She, a documentary that examines how different cultures deal with gender identification and people whose sexuality may not be as clearly defined as it is for other folks. Films like these suggest that familiarity can breed understanding, not contempt.

Some followers of the documentary movement will confuse Jed Weintrob's The F Word with Steve Anderson's F*CK, which also is entering the marketplace in November. Instead of a treatise on the history and myths surrounding the infamous verb/noun/adverb/adjective, Weintrob's film is something of a homage to Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool, which inserted a dramatic conceit into documentary footage from the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention. Here, actual coverage of the 2004 Republican Convention in New York provides the backdrop for a story decrying the FCC's continual fining of media outlets and talk-show hosts who dare to employ adult language within the context of adult-oriented programming. Horrors! That such fines have effectively stifled free speech in the broadcast mediums is obvious. The F Word takes the debate out of the hearing rooms of Washington, and creates a scenario non-political viewers might find palatable.

Besides being informative and stimulating, the great thing about most of these documentaries is that, in a perverse way, they're also greatly entertaining. If, however, the issues addressed don't stimulate you to vote -- one way or the other -- you might want to consider moving to Burma, North Korea, Libya or some other country whose leaders aren't particularly interested in the opinions of their citizenry.

November 2, 2006

- Gary Dretzka

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