War Tapes, the Movie

Erkan's blog ... source of so many interesting things.

Today he posted news about a war documentary called 'The War Tapes'.

Deborah Scranton, the director wrote this: We all have pivotal defining moments in our lives. For me, one of those was stumbling across James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men'.

Agee's philosophy of "living journalism," of getting close enough to hurt, of investing to the core of your being in the lives of those you are documenting, became my mantra. To get their stories, you have to give of yourself – confront the wall of "objectivity" and smash through it. It's about being human first, a journalist and filmmaker second. And it is only when we are a human being first that we approach truth.

"War Tapes," a documentary filmed by National Guard soldiers in Iraq, won the best documentary award, wrote ABC News .

It was directed by Deborah who gave digital cameras to five U.S. soldiers to film their one-year deployments in Iraq. Edited from 800 hours of film, it is a candid and instantaneous inside look at what it means to fight a war from a soldier's point of view.

There's always a little bit more ... and this search took me to the Tribeca Film Institute online. It's well worth exploring if you're into that kind of thing. The Film Festival site can be found here.