Instead of going to Iraq and shooting the video for her documentary, Deborah has given digital video cameras to the soldiers themselves and had them shoot their expeiorences. Check out the results:
Deborah Scranton's "The War Tapes"
Attempting to achieve a delicate balance between a respect for and a critical stance toward the subject, with a constant awareness of the moral and ethical dilemmas potentially undermining the epistemological foundations of their projects, war documentaries arrive onscreen carrying a host of artistic burdens. "The War Tapes" is unique in its radical attempt to get past the ideological suspicion accompanying antiwar docs by having the bulk of its footage shot by soldiers themselves--detractors will initially hesitate before declaring that director (but how useful is such a term for a film like this?) Deborah Scranton brought her political baggage to a complex reality toward which she refused to remain objective. The misconception will no doubt also arise that "The War Tapes" captures the "real" face of the Iraq War in a way supposedly inferior documentaries fail to do because of their limited access to military quarters and combat zones. This is of course, nonsense--even if "The War Tapes" allows us to view the war directly from soldiers' points of view, it is still filtered, edited, and selected to manufacture distinct effects. Make no mistake, however: "The War Tapes" is decidedly antiwar, and its use of video diary from the front lines isn't mere exploitation--it's powerful reportage
by Michael Joshua Rowin with responses from Chris Wisniewski and Nicolas Rapold (May 30, 2006)
[indieWIRE's weekly reviews are written by critics from Reverse Shot.]
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