This paper examines independent contemporary documentary films as a corrective to the compromised journalism that characterized mainstream media coverage of the Iraq War. Using films such as Deborah Scranton's War Tapes (2006), James Longley's Iraq in Fragments (2006), and Martin Kunert's Voices of Iraq (2004), the paper argues that documentary filmmaking — guided by theories from scholars including Paula Rabinowitz, Michael Renov, and Stella Bruzzi — offers a more authentic, subject-centered perspective than corporate or politically embedded reporting. The paper explores how virtual embedding, direct cinema techniques, and filmmaker restraint allowed these documentaries to present the soldier's experience and the Iraqi people's voices with minimal agenda-driven distortion.
The paper demonstrates the use of extended block quotation as evidence. Rather than simply paraphrasing Bruzzi, Renov, and Weiss, the author allows their words to carry analytical weight, then follows each quotation with direct interpretive commentary tying it back to the thesis. This shows how to use secondary scholarship to validate claims about primary texts (the films themselves).
The paper opens with a contextual critique of embedded journalism during the Iraq invasion, then transitions to three documentary case studies arranged by subject perspective: the soldier (War Tapes), the Iraqi civilian (Iraq in Fragments), and the Iraqi people as directors (Voices of Iraq). These case studies are framed and connected by a middle section of documentary theory. The conclusion synthesizes the examples into a claim about documentary film's democratic value as public record.
Journalism seems to have strayed from its early tradition of working a story toward the presentation of unbiased facts. At the beginning of Operation Freedom — the invasion of Iraq by U.S. military forces — President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld offered press reporters the opportunity to embed with the invading troops, covering the war from as inside a position as they could possibly hope to achieve. For a moment, Bush and Rumsfeld were the media darlings of the day, touted as pro-freedom seekers. Their pro-freedom stance was, of course, evidenced by the fact that journalists covering the war were not merely riding along with the troops but were inside the armored vehicles, hunched down in cramped quarters speeding through the desert.
Reporters filed dispatches from those cramped quarters, and video of well-known media faces dressed in desert gear appeared in nearly every report on the invasion. It was very different reporting from any war footage to come out of a military engagement since World War I. The story was suddenly not unbiased and about the events taking place — that would come later, after Bush and Rumsfeld ceased to be media darlings and reporting reverted to its traditional methods. Rather, the reporting was focused on the reporting itself. Viewers had to wonder whether, when the focus of the journalists was the journalists themselves, the public could truly be receiving the facts and the real story of what was going on. How had journalism moved so far from independent reporting of the facts that it became "embedded" in its own fifteen minutes of fame?
Then, in the form of real independent journalism, a kind of redemption emerged, and stories began to slowly trickle out from Iraq and Afghanistan through independent and unbiased documentary works.
One such documentary filmmaker was Deborah Scranton (2006), who took a 180-degree turn away from traditional media and chose what she refers to as "virtual" embedding with the troops (WBH Forum, 2006). Speaking before the WBH Forum about the process of making the documentary, Scranton explained that the New Hampshire National Guard offered her the opportunity to document their Guard unit in Iraq. Scranton decided that the film needed to be told from the perspective of the soldier, and instead of traveling to Iraq herself, she would equip the troops with cameras so that the reporting and the film would be one hundred percent the story of the soldiers based on their own experiences.
Scranton discussed at length the soldiers' concerns when she met with them and explained her idea. Their primary concern was that their stories would become lost in her personal agenda — a worry that suggests the soldiers had already formed impressions of previous embedded reporting. Scranton convinced them that the story she would construct from their experiences and the images they captured would be theirs alone, without her agenda imposed upon it. It was a conscious decision, she says, not to go to Iraq personally, in order to stay true to capturing the story from the soldiers' perspective. "To get their stories, you have to give of yourself," Scranton explains, meaning "being a human being first, and a journalist and filmmaker second" (Scranton, 2006).
Scranton is convinced that the documentary remained true to the soldiers' story: it was filmed by them, was about them, and reflected their mission. She also notes that the internet played a critical role in the making of the film, as more than 800 hours of footage was transferred from the soldiers' theater of operations back to her editing workshop (Scranton, 2006).
The result of Scranton's concept and the soldiers' filming is the documentary War Tapes (2006). The footage was captured from cameras mounted on soldiers' helmets, dashboards, kevlar vests, and handheld devices. Scranton is careful to note that documentary filming was always secondary to personal safety, to the mission, and to the soldiers' service to their country.
The film conveys the strength and courage of the soldiers as they face battle with often unseen enemies who strike from the cover of urban homes and crowded streets. It is an unsparing, unbiased reality of facing war. It also conveys the bond that exists between men whose lives are at constant risk — men who make whatever jokes or small talk are necessary to think about anything other than dying during the long hours of waiting. The moments of actual gunfire and action are not as extended as many viewers might expect. The film tells the story of a new kind of war: less the image of soldiers in Vietnam or World War II and more the hit-and-run reality of urban warfare.
Scranton remains true to her promise to the soldiers and allows the documentary to be by them, about them, and on their terms. There is no political agenda, no corporate directive for ratings, no eye on a journalism prize — only the soldiers' experience. The political burden is left to the viewer: Is this what we want to risk the lives of our sons and daughters for? Is this worth a soldier's leg, his arm, his eyesight? Do we have a clear understanding of what is happening there? We do, because Scranton's and the soldiers' documentary shows what is happening: the obeying of command and focus on the mission at hand. There is little room for political ideology, because surrendering a soldier's mind to rhetoric and distraction would cause him or her to lose focus, and when a soldier is at risk, the entire team and the entire mission are at risk.
What also becomes clear in the film is that the soldiers are convinced that in performing their duty, obeying command, and carrying out the mission, they are making a difference — a difference in the hearts and minds of the people they encounter, who see them setting aside political bias to confront opposing forces that hide behind civilian families.
War Tapes is a documentary film that takes no side, only a story, and the viewer is left free to choose sides and draw conclusions from what they see. It represents an attempt to return the journalistic perspective to the story itself. It also demonstrates that in order to obtain the "real" story — free of corporate, political, or journalistic agenda — the public may need to rely on the newer voices in journalism, those who need the facts and the truth to launch their careers.
Another significant documentary is James Longley's Iraq in Fragments (2006), a forthright examination of the people of Iraq and their perspectives on the war and governance. The documentary opens with a scene depicting the chaos that has become daily life for the Iraqi people. It cuts to the perspective of one Iraqi, then another. An old man says that Iraq will be cut into three pieces; a young child responds, "Iraq cannot be cut into pieces." What the documentary ultimately shows is a population attempting to live their daily lives amid violence that is the expression of competing forces over which the people themselves have little control. The Iraqis are not a people without a voice, and Longley gives them the opportunity to speak. Mohammad Haithem Majid is the young boy featured prominently throughout the film.
Longley exposes Iraq's Muslim diversity — Sunni, Shia, and Kurd. The Iraqi people are exhausted by fear, by bombs, and by dictatorial despotism. There is a clear sense that these people want peace, but they want peace on terms that protect their own communities. They are a fragmented society, and this is their story. It is not necessarily the story that the powers in control wish to acknowledge, but that is precisely the purpose of the documentary: to bring viewers the perspective of those most directly affected by contending power blocs — elected, insurgent, and occupying alike.
In Voices of Iraq (2004), Martin Kunert is the uncredited director of the film, while the credited directors are listed simply as the "People of Iraq" (IMDB). Kunert conveys the essence of documentary filmmaking in its most pure and visually impactful form: the storytellers are the story, the subject, the event itself.
Today, given the environment of political pressure, corporate ratings imperatives, and individual ambition, documentary film may be the most pure form of unedited and unbiased information available to the public.
Bruzzi, Stella. New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2000.
Kunert, Martin. Voices of Iraq. Documentary Film. Booya Studios, Iraq, 2004.
Longley, James. Iraq in Fragments. Documentary Film. Daylight Factory, 2006.
Rabinowitz, Paula. They Must Be Represented: The Politics of Documentary. London: Verso, 1994.
Renov, Michael. The Subject of Documentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.
Scranton, Deborah. The War Tapes. Documentary Film. SenArt Films, 2006.
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