indieWIRE Online Journal

     I am following an online journal called indieWire, a website that has well put together stories, interviews, and many other things relating to mostly independent films, Indie film festivals, and the involved personal in the independent film scene. As I have been reading, I came across an article/interview that was especially interesting to me because of my recent viewing of “Baghdad In No Particular Order.”

 

The interview is entitled, “TRIBECA ‘08 INTERVIEW | “War, Love, God & Madness” Director Mohamed Al-Daradji“ by indieWIRE (April 25, 2008). 

    

     When I first skimmed this interview I realized the content was familiar to me. There was text about Suddam Hussein, Iraq, and US troops. I remember seeing the footage in “Baghdad In No Particular Order” early on in class where the ladies had uniforms on, holding guns, and chanting pro Saddam Hussein, anti-american/Bush chants.  Al Daradji was a Iraq native and had remembered watching Iraqi films as a child before Hussein stopped the practice of filmmaking in Iraq. Al Daradji states, “After Saddam’s Regime was overthrown in 2003, I went back home to Iraq.” He decided to begin filming there found it to be filled with hope. As he filmed, he began to understand better what was really happening in his homeland, and he also found some sort of magical hope that resonated throughout the filming of his country. When he first came back, the times were full of sheer chaos and it lead him to believe that there is hope and he decided to display it the best he could, through film. It is interesting because unlike Chan’s “B.I.N.P.O” the war was still happening. The US troops were still there and in fact Al Daradji and some of his crew were “faced by unimaginable circumstances with no money, Struggling against time, persecution, imprisonment, injuries, terrorist attacks and the American army, our own survival sometimes took over.” Through all of their hardships and struggle, they managed to finish the film and have captured some genuine moments of the real Iraq, and US Iraqis. I hope to see this film and compare it with Chan’s film. Al Daradji understands that his film is indeed a “difficult” film, but he hopes the industry will stand behind him and push it forward because he believes it is a foreign language documentary that fills a need. 

    

     The second article/interview that I found immensly intriguing was indieWIRE INTERVIEW | “Dear Zachary” Director Kurt Kuenne.

        

     Kurt Kuenne was interviewed regarding his film “Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father.” This article was interesting for many reasons. Kuenne is the man behind almost all aspects of the film. It is a documentary that has Kuenne has a special bond with because he was best friends with the main subject of the film, Dr. Andrew Bagby.  The film pays tribute to Bagby who was viciously murdered by the woman who was four months pregnant with his son. Kuenne states, “When I received the news that my best friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby, had been murdered. Probably because I had documentaries on the brain, within about 24 hours I decided to fashion a tribute film of sorts as a memory album for family and friends.” The original intent of the film was to a “memory album for family and friends.” I find that so interesting because of how popular it is now becoming. Kuenne says in the trailer that Andrew was in every one of his films when they were growing up. The bond is obviously close and it directly effects the sincerity of the content and the genuine care from the filmmaker. Many people have made documentaries about people, places, and ideas that they are not even remotely attached to as Kurt is to Andrew. This film, though I have not seen it yet, has groundbreaking written all over it. Kuenne wanted to stray from your typical crime documentaries or tv shows. He said, “There are a lot of crime documentaries out there about killers, movies that explore their backgrounds and motivations, whose appeal I cannot fathom; I wanted this to be perhaps one of the first told from the point of view of the victim, the usually faceless person the media generally glosses over like a statistic. I wanted to bring Andrew back to life, to make the audience feel like he was their friend, so that they would be just as furious as I am when they witness what was allowed to happen here.”

Kuenn wants the viewers to be put in his shoes, being aware of the tragedy that this story really is. Through this interview I found information about tragedy, a documentary film, and a director that seems to have a unique perspective on filmmaking and documentaries in general. I hope I get the chance to see this film. I know, just from seeing the trailer, that it will have a profound impact on my life and those I pass it on to. It would be wise of him to get started on the DVD process, if he hasn’t yet. 

    

    

Benjamin Fisher