Above photo:  Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Looking resplendent in his Oscar-friendly garb of t-shirt, jeans and baseball cap, Michael Moore bounded onto the stage of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater Wednesday night to commandeer the sold-out DOCS! program. Now in its third year of saluting the Oscar-nominated films and filmmakers in the documentary categories, DOCS! had its genesis in IDA's long-running Oscar Nominees Reception.   

Moore opened with a keynote address, of sorts, about the power of documentaries "It's important to tell true stories," he said. "The public wants the truth, and they've been lied to." He also talked about the new rules for qualifying documentaries for Academy Award consideration, in the spirit of the theatrical experience, citing the soon-to-be-opened Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, which will showcase documentaries year-round, as a model to be replicated. "It's our art," he stressed. "These are films you should see with your fellow Americans; they should be something to be experienced collectively."

And with that, he introduced the nominees in the Documentary Short Subject category for a panel discussion. Moore pointed out the empty chair on stage was in honor of Gail Dolgin, the director/producer, with Robin Fryday, of The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement. Dolgin had passed away of breast cancer in October 2010, before the film was completed, and the film's subject, James Armstrong, had passed in November 2009.

Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson were on hand for God Is the Bigger Elvis, which Moore cited as "the one comedy in the group." Moore himself had actually considered the priesthood in his post-college years; "Now, I'm a recovering Catholic," he admitted. Anderson noted that the nuns of the Benedictine Abbey in the film "were extremely generous" with respect to questions about contraception and abortion. "These nuns are quite modern." Cammisa, whose mother had been a nun for ten years, discussed the difference between "spiritual" and "religious" as contrasting means of engagement with the modern world.   

On the eve of former soldier Bradley Manning's trial for leaking video footage of a July 2007 attack on Reuters journalists and Iraqi civilians by US helicopters to WikiLeaks, James Spione discussed his film Incident in New Baghdad, which includes that footage in its entirety, as a pretext for profiling one soldier, US Army Specialist Ethan McCord, who was on the ground that day. "This film is about taking an international incident and bringing it to ground level, showing the personal trauma because of it," Spione asserted. "It's a film about empathy; war strips that away."

Daniel Junge sought out Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy to team up with him in her native Pakistan to make Saving Face, about Pakistani women who have survived acid attacks—often at the hands of their husbands, who invariably avoid punishment—and about individuals who are striving to make changes in this dreadful  condition. The filmmakers spent four months in the edit room, and determined that the short form was the more potent one for both telling the story and trying to find redemption and hope.

 As in the case with so many documentary films, what you end up with doesn't always square with your original intentions. Such was the case with Lucy Walker's The Tsumani and the Cherry Blossom; she had planned to screen her film Countdown to Zero in Japan, then make a short "visual haiku" about the cherry blossom season, when the earthquake hit-followed in short, devastating order by the tsumani and the nuclear disaster. She decided to go to Japan, with cinematographer Aaron Phillips, and amid the severe trauma—no power, water or transportation for a week—they engaged an American translator there and found survivors to tell their stories, as the cherry blossom season began.

Discussing the short form itself, the panel agreed that "short is the new long." "Shorts don't go longer than they should," Anderson agreed," while some features are too long."

In the subsequent panel of filmmakers from the nominated documentary features, Wim Wenders extolled the virtues of 3D—his format of choice for Pina—suggesting it as the "secret weapon" for keeping documentaries in theaters. "3D is the future of the documentary language," he asserted, citing digital, then HD as the precursors. While 3D technology may not have served Danfung Dennis in the battlefields of Afghanistan when making Hell and Back Again, he too helped create a new cinematic experience with the camera equipment he developed for his film. "Hell and Back Again and Pina would not have been made three years ago," noted Dan Lindsay, director/producer of Undefeated.

For most of the features half of the evening, Moore kept the conversational topic on the challenge of getting documentaries into theaters (albeit with a veiled dig at IDA's DocuWeeks, and no mention of DocuDay). Sam Cullman of If a Tree Falls lauded Moore for helping to make documentaries more popular, given the impressive number of $1 million box office grossers in the past decade. Moore countered that he may raised unreasonable expectations among distributors and exhibitors for all documentaries. He also noted that Sony Pictures Classics, which has distributed such successes as Riding Giants, The Fog of War and last year's Oscar winner, Inside Job, was talking about backing off from documentaries altogether.   

Wenders reiterated, "We should be more adventurous in our language," while Joe Berlinger of Paradise Lost 3 felt filmmakers should be "expanding the definition of what is the cinematic experience."

"It's the Lord's work that we do," Moore concluded the evening. "Let's do all we can for this art."

IDA is excited to announce that Canon will be on hand in the lobby of the WGA Theater in Los Angeles this Saturday, February 25 at our annual DocuDay event.

Canon representatives will be on site to showcase their newest development, the Canon Cinema EOS System. This new camera system, "built from the ground up for the serious filmmaker [...] is inspired by and created for the industry." To completely understand everyone filmmaker's wants and needs, Canon has consulted hundreds of people in the business to create this innovative new system, which they are proud to showcase for you at DocuDay LA.

From Canon's website:

Leveraging decades of Canon experience delivering imaging technology and services, Cinema EOS is more than the sum of its parts—camera body, lenses, service and support; it's a definitive HD motion picture system, conceived as an extension of the cinematographer. And this is just the beginning. Expect many more announcements in the months to come—all part of Canon's commitment to provide professionals with the tools and support they need to tell their stories.

It is worth noting that Oscar-nominated films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom and Hell and Back Again were both shot on Canon DSLRs. If you can make it to the screenings of each of these films (at 9am and 4:15pm, respectively), the filmmakers will be talking about their experiences working with Canon products out in the field.

Come pick up your tickets and passes early and spend some time with this stunning new technology. We promise you'll have bragging rights among all your filmmaker friends!

Anyone who loves food appreciates the importance of a helpful restaurant write-up. How else would we know what to order or the best nights for a romantic one-on-one meal? And in major metropolitan areas like LA, there's one big name to trust when it comes to informative, vetted reviews: Zagat. And with their 2013 Zagat Survey, they want to make sure they hear from you! What's your favorite dish at that hidden Korean restaurant? How much did you spend at the new place in Echo Park, and was the service worth the bill? With Zagat Survey, you can let your opinion known and see it put to good use!

Zagat Survey is a business based on a simple premise – that the shared opinions of thousands of avid consumers with real experiences are inherently more accurate than the opinions of just one or two critics. Through their print and digital content, they give people the power of a collective voice and the information to make smart decisions.

Your opinion matters to Zagat, and to kick off their 2013 Los Angeles / So. California Restaurants Survey, they'd like to give attendees of IDA’s DocuDay the opportunity to win a year of movies including a year subscription to NetFlix and $300 to Arclight Theaters just for sharing your thoughts on restaurants in Los Angeles. All you have to do is drop by our Zagat Lounge at DocuDay, register, vote and get ready to watch some movies! You'll be able to vote at the Zagat booth onsite at DocuDay as well as at home.

We're excited to see you at DocuDay this Saturday! Be sure to come with a hunger for a good movies and a desire to discuss good food. Until then!

Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom at DocuDay LA on Saturday, February 25 at the Writers Guild of America Theater, with filmmakers Kira Carstensen and Lucy Walker in person.

Synopsis: Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan's recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins.

A stunning visual poem about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan's most beloved flower.

International Documentary Association: How long after the disaster occurred were you able to get over to Japan? Did you start filming as soon as you got there?

Lucy Walker: I think it was about 10 days. We started out in Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima because immediately it wasn’t actually possible to even get [to the disaster zone]. There were no cars to rent or places to stay—you can imagine, with all those displaced people and smashed-up cars. With the contamination fear in Tokyo, stores had sold out of bottled water. [There were] rolling blackouts because of the power situation. There were no trains to the North; many of the subways weren’t working. No escalators in Tokyo were working to save power, so [it was] a very strange and eerie situation.

Everyone I spoke to when we started filming kept saying that they were thinking about the people in the Tōhoku region, and they wanted to know what they were going through. Eventually, enough people say that and you realize that’s what you’re thinking, too. You say, "Well really, that’s where the film is. We should probably go there."

IDA: When you eventually got to Tōhoku, the men and women you spoke with seem very comfortable opening up to you about their losses and their pain. How did you get access to speak to members of the community and have them respond so candidly?

LW: Just by being very friendly. I had kind of an open mind about it. I think it made people happier that the world hadn’t forgotten them. Foreigners had all fled the country and there weren’t journalists around. It was a very eerie, empty landscape. It was very big, and the rescue teams were very sparse.

The empty landscape that you see in the film with just a couple of people kind of picking their way across it was what the reality was like. So if you saw another human being in that landscape, and that human being was somebody who just wanted to see how you were doing and ask you to tell your story...It turned out that people were just very happy to talk and share.

I think that most people were very touched by encouragement and support and solidarity shown by other nations in Japan’s desperate hour of need. It’s even tough to recollect now, a year later, what a triple whammy this disaster was with the earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear disaster all rolled into one. They were hit very, very hard. You actually wish there were more of you. We’re making a very small contribution with our presence, but our presence felt like a gift of support, encouragement, interest and caring. I was very glad for that.

IDA: Kira, were you over in Japan with Lucy while she was shooting?

Kira Carstensen: No, I was organizing things from stateside. Lucy only went over there with one DP (Aaron Phillips), and we picked up an interpreter—an American man living in Tokyo—to interpret for Lucy and Aaron. It was a very small crew, and that was strategic on Lucy’s part for a number of reasons. Firstly, there were dangerous stories coming out of Japan regarding contamination and other kinds of exposure. Lucy felt very responsible to not put her crew in danger any more than she needed to. Also, I think you tend to be less threatening when there’s a smaller amount of people, [especially for] people who are unaccustomed to being on television. It allowed them to get into areas that they wouldn’t have been able to get into had there been a lot more of them.

IDA: What inspired you to make this film in the first place?

KC: Prior to the disaster, Lucy and I were talking about using an upcoming promotional trip that she had to Japan with regard to her previous film Countdown to Zero. We thought while she was over there she would make a short, visual poem about cherry blossoms. I’ve always been obsessed with cherry blossoms as much as Lucy, and we talked about that we had that in common and thought it would be beautiful [to] make a short, little visual haiku. And of course a few days before her scheduled departure, the earthquake and tsunami hit.

It was sort of a question of—What do we do now? Do we go? And we realized it was more important now than ever. It was the classic documentary story, I guess: Lucy as a photojournalist reacting to real-world events and changing up the plan. We ended up having to get a fresh crew, and we didn’t have the support from Japan that we thought we were going to have for the little film because obviously, Japan was in crisis.

And you know, as desolate and as much destruction as you see in the film, it was so much worse in person than I think even shows on film. Aaron and James MacWhyte, who was the interpreter that we picked up in Tokyo, both of them have been forever changed by that experience for sure.

IDA: It’s interesting that the initial idea was to make a film about cherry blossoms because it seems it would be the other way around—that you went over to do this work about the disaster, and then ended up pulling in the cherry blossom as a metaphor for the resilience of the Japanese people.

LW: It was really organic. Documentary filmmaking is sort of art because you are constantly evolving how you’re working based on what you’re finding. Originally I wanted to make a small film about cherry blossoms. Then [after the disaster] we went there and realized the story was actually in that disaster area. And in the disaster area when you ask people how they’re doing, they’ll naturally start telling you about the cherry blossoms, because you couldn’t miss it. In that landscape, when you’ve got these beautiful buds poking through that debris, you can smell dead bodies and you can see the markings on the house and the cars and the boats where the dead bodies had been found—such a dreadful landscape to see these flowers poking up and starting to bloom. It was just so remarkable.

That symbol is so incredibly strong in the Japanese culture. Japanese people are genuinely obsessed with [cherry blossoms] and it came a month after the disaster, right when people were picking themselves back up and realizing that nobody was really going to help them. Everybody had to move forward in life and figure out what they had to do for themselves.

As somebody says at the end of the movie, "One day people get up and say ‘I can do this. I can carry on.'" That’s in a nutshell what the whole movie is—people deciding that they can carry on after what’s happened. These are the moments in life when we need the most deep wisdom and understanding and strength to pull on, because how on earth can you get through moments in history or in your life like this one? You need the best forces of strength and power and encouragement available in a moment like that.

IDA: Lucy, why do you think you have such a strong connection with cherry blossoms?

LW: I had been taking care of my mother when she had been dying. She looked out of the window and said "these are the last cherry blossoms I’m going to see." Then she said that when she had been taking care of her mother, my grandmother looked out of the window and said “I’m not going to see any cherry blossoms anymore.”

My mom said "Oh, don’t worry. You’re going to get better, I’m sure you will." My mother had always been haunted by this response of denial, that she hadn’t been able to accept that her mother was dying and therefore couldn’t share an honest moment with her mother. She told me this, and then she and I had an honest moment about the fact that she was dying quite soon.

I was in Washington DC and I saw these cherry blossoms and it kind of snapped me into the present. And for me, I’d measured my own grief against these cherry blossoms. They had this very powerful effect on me and snapped me back into the present in a very healing way.

I realized that in Japan they had the same obsessions with these blossoms. And that’s why I wanted to go hanami ("flower viewing") parties in Tokyo. When people start talking to you and they naturally start talking about cherry blossoms, everyone had stories like that.

IDA: Kira, do you have a personal story about your connection to this tree or the process it goes through or to what it symbolizes?

KC: When I was very young I took my first field trip to Washington DC with my father and my mother, and it happened to be when the cherry blossoms were in bloom. I thought they were just so gorgeous, and they were falling. It’s so gorgeous when they fall. When they die, it’s beautiful. It’s the thing that I associate with that trip. I don’t remember so much of the monuments and the other things that I saw, but I do remember that.

What I love more than anything was their symbolism in the Japanese culture and that they were so revered and respected. They do symbolize life and the fragility of life and the transient nature of life. That just always struck me; I just think they’re the most beautiful flower. So when Lucy called me and asked what I thought of cherry blossoms, I said "I love cherry blossoms. Why are you asking?" We discussed it and she said "I’m thinking about making a short film." At that time we thought we were going to make like a four or five minute film that was just something beautiful. And then of course, on March 11, prior to departure, the other events unfolded.

IDA: How have audiences reacted as you have screened this film? What do you find the most surprising about their response?

LW: We’ve been really overjoyed. I’ve made short films before, and I never know what to expect. I think that people have really gotten a lot out of it. I’m obviously overjoyed by the Academy and the Sundance recognition. It was a very personal project.

The Japanese audiences reactions have been amazing. The emails we’re getting—you can’t believe how moving they are and how happy and grateful they are. Really profound responses. The film was made from my Westerner’s eyes. We had a wonderful Japanese editor who contributed as much as anyone to the film. I take ownership of the fact that I’m absolutely not Japanese. I’m an outsider, so I didn’t know what Japanese people would make of the film.

KC: I've seen the movie a hundred times or more. I love screening it with new audiences because there's a common reaction like from Toronto and Sundance to San Diego for Cinema Society—completely different groups at different places. There’s always a huge audible gasp at the opening footage of the tsunami devastating this town. And then there's tears in the audience. I feel myself experiencing those emotions no matter how many times I see the film over and over again. I do leave the film feeling hopefully at the end. I believe the audiences do, too. It’s a powerful moviegoing experience for a lot of people who watch the film. It is for me every time.

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom is screening at DocuDay LA at the Writers Guild of America Theater and at DocuDay NY at the Paley Center for Media as part of IDA's program of 2012 Oscar®-nominated films.

In 2010, IDA achieved an historic exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on behalf of documentary filmmakers that allows us to obtain materials from DVDs for use in our films when we are conducting criticism and commentary. This was an important victory because without an exemption, even where it was perfectly legal to use a particular piece of content, the DMCA often made it illegal to access that content. (We are now seeking a renewal of the DVD exemption that will also cover Blu-Ray and digitally transmitted video.)

We recently learned that in Canada, policymakers are considering a similar law—but the Canadian version might not contain any protections for documentary filmmakers or others who use existing cultural or historical material as they conduct commentary, make criticism, or explore the world around us. So IDA wrote a letter to Canadian policymakers in which we share the experience of American documentarians with the DMCA. As we explain in the letter, the fact is that without an exemption the DMCA would have deeply harmed documentary filmmaking in the United States. We hope that our members and fellow filmmakers in Canada don't suffer that fate.

At IDA, we advocate for, help protect and advance the legal rights of documentary filmmakers. Over our thirty-year history, IDA has been at the forefront of support on major issues confronting our industry.

Learn more about IDA's advocacy work.

Read the full letter as submitted by IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin.

Editor's Note: Saving Face is nominated for an IDA Documentary Award in the Short category. Here's an interview with filmmakers Daniel Junge and Shameen Obaid Chinoy that we published a week prior to DocuDay.

Synopsis: Every year in Pakistan, at least 100 people are victimized by brutal acid attacks. The majority of these are women, and many more cases go unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred, while many reported assailants - typically a husband or someone close to the victim - are let go with minimal punishment from the state.

Saving Face tells the stories of two acid-attack survivors: Zakia and Rukhsana, their arduous attempts to bring their assailants to justice, and the charitable work of London-based, Pakistani-born plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad, who strives to help these women put this horrific act behind them and move on with their lives. Saving Face also highlights the efforts of the women across Pakistani society that are making efforts to help this vexing issue and the changes that occur from their efforts. Directed by Oscar® and Emmy®-nominated filmmaker Daniel Junge and Emmy®-winning Pakistani director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Saving Face is an intimate look inside Pakistani society, illuminating each women's personal journey while showing how reformers are tackling this vexing problem.

International Documentary Association: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Daniel Junge: I got the documentary bug learning from George Stoney at NYU, but worked in the narrative film industry for a number of years before gravitating to London where I started doing documentary work. From there I researched and organized my first feature documentary in my home state of Wyoming.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy: I began my career as an investigative print journalist in my hometown, Karachi. I continued to write for local publications in the US and Canada during my undergraduate career at Smith College. During my time at Smith, the tragic events of September 11th took place, and I recognized that journalists who were familiar with the region needed to report out of Afghanistan and Pakistan as they recognized the political and cultural contexts of the two nations. I then chose to transition to film as I felt it was a visceral medium that promoted audience engagement and dialogue.

IDA: When were you first made aware of the increase in acid burnings in Pakistan?

SOC: Currently, there are over a hundred cases of acid violence reported in Pakistan annually. It is estimated that the real figures are much higher. Although I had always been aware of the fact that acid assaults existed in Pakistan, I had not had the opportunity to meet with survivors or engage with relevant organizations. When Daniel spoke with me about the initial concept behind Saving Face, I was immediately struck by the urgency of this situation, and felt compelled to do my part in not only projecting the issue but also giving due credit to those who were effectively working against it. Saving Face is meant to serve as an educational tool that prompts communities to recognize the prevalence of acid violence and foster communication on this issue.
 

IDA: How did you find the plastic surgeon that was doing this reconstructive work for women victims?

DJ: I heard Dr. Jawad on BBC Radio discussing his patient Katie Piper, the aspiring model attacked by acid in London. When I heard his name, I called him up out of the blue and asked if he knew about the incidence of acid attacks in South Asia and the Muslim world, to which he replied, "Know about it? I'm working with them in my home country of Pakistan." The adventure began.
 

IDA: How did your vision change over the course of the filmmaking process?

DJ: We always knew Dr. Jawad would be the center of the film and a vehicle to tell the stories of different survivors. But we were really struck by two of the women's stories and their courage in opening up to our cameras. They, in essence, are the heroes of the film and Dr. Jawad became the connective fiber for their stories.

IDA: What were some of the obstacles that you encountered when making this film?

SOC: A vast majority of acid violence cases are found in the Seraiki belt, a cotton-growing region that has some of the highest levels of poverty and lowest levels of education in all of Pakistan. Acid is widely available there as it is used in cotton fields. These factors, coupled with cultures that condone violence against women, have contributed to the underreported nature of acid violence.

As a film crew, we were initially met with skepticism in local communities, and we struggled to battle against the mindset that existed there. However, once we settled into the towns and made connections we did not face any further obstacles.

As a director, I had to train myself to not get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of injustice and violence found in the narratives behind Saving Face. It is one thing to hear about acid violence or read an article about it, and another to spend long periods of time with survivors as they slowly rebuild their lives. Zakia and Rukhsana's determination was contagious; I was incredibly inspired by their stories and am honored to have the opportunity to share their stories with a wider audience.

IDA: As you've screened this film, how have audiences reacted? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reaction?

DJ: We have yet to see it front of a live audience. We raced to qualify the film for the Oscars this year and were not able to attend the qualifying screenings.  We now have a number of global screenings and our HBO broadcast, so we're really looking forward to seeing how audiences react.
 

IDA: What documentaries or documentary filmmakers have served as inspiration for you?

SOC: I deeply admire James Longley's film Iraq In Fragments. Shot, directed and edited beautifully, this film tells the story of Iraq during the conflict in a unique and awe inspiring manner. It humanizes a conflict by telling an alternative story than the one that we have grown used to; one in which things are more complex than the basic good guy bad guy binary. I was impressed by the honesty and integrity in the film, and was inspired by the treatment of the Iraq war in it. 

Saving Face is screening at DocuDay LA at the Writers Guild of America Theater and at DocuDay NY at the Paley Center for Media as part of IDA's program of 2012 Oscar®-nominated films.

Academy Governor Michael Moore and the Academy's new rules for docs were challenged by Nina Seavey, Director of the Documentary Center at George Washington University, on NPR's Talk of the Nation program today. Seavey, also a documentary filmmaker and founding director of Silverdocs, questioned the inclusivity of the new rules and their impact on IDA's Oscar-qualifying program DocuWeeks, which has qualified over 186 films in the documentary short and feature categories.

The conversation continues at IDA's Doc U this Monday at the Cinefamily in Los Angeles.

Since news broke in early January about the changes to the Academy’s rules for documentary features, there has been an ongoing discussion on impact of these new rules on the documentary community. On January 10, IDA released a statement regarding the rules change. Over the past month, we have been talking to filmmakers, journalists, Academy members and newspaper editors as we try to asses the impact of the Academy’s actions on the doc filmmaking community as well as IDA’s Oscar-qualifying program, DocuWeeks.

With the final decision on the current Oscar race just days away, and many looking forward to making a bid for 2012’s Oscars, IDA invites the Los Angeles film community to join IDA Board President Marjan Safinia as she moderates a discussion with doc insiders, including Steve Pond, columnist for The Wrap and a top Oscarologist (according to goldderby.com); Dana Harris, Editor-in-chief of Indiewire; James Moll, veteran non-fiction filmmaker and Executive Committee member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and Dustin Smith, VP, Acquisitions & Business Affairs for Roadside Attractions, to ask and answer these questions and many more. What does it take to mount a successful Oscar® campaign, and how much does it cost? What does an award really mean for the future of your film and your career? And what do the new rules really mean for doc filmmakers?

Join us on Monday, February 20 at 7pm at Cinefamily @ the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Advanced tickets are on sale now, with additional tickets available at the door the night of the event (pending availability). IDA Members and Student Members will find tickets at special discounted rates.

The evening's on-stage conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A, and a reception on the Cinefamily's backyard Spanish patio!

Editor's Note: Incident in New Baghdad airs May 27 on The Documentary Channel. What follows is an interview we conducted with director James Spione in the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards.  

Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination. You can see Incident in New Baghdad at DocuDay LA on Saturday, February 25 at the Writers Guild of America Theater, with filmmaker James Spione in person.

Synopsis: In this raw, provocative documentary from independent filmmaker James Spione, one of the most notorious incidents of the Iraq War--the July 2007 slayings of two Reuters journalists and a number of other civilians by U.S. attack helicopters--is recounted in the powerful testimony of an American infantryman whose life was profoundly changed by his experiences on the scene.

U.S. Army Specialist Ethan McCord bore witness to the devastating carnage, found and rescued the two children caught in the crossfire, and soon turned against the war that he had enthusiastically joined only months before. Denied psychological treatment in Iraq for his PTSD, McCord returned home, struggling for years with anger, confusion, and guilt over the war. When WikiLeaks released the stunning cockpit video of the incident in April 2010, McCord was finally spurred into action, and began traveling the country, speaking out for the rights of PTSD sufferers and against the American wars in the Middle East.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

James Spione: Documentary work was something of a career change for me. I had directed a number of fiction shorts—Prelude, a Student Academy Award® winner, then Garden (Sundance ’95) and The Playroom. I also produced John G. Young’s first independent feature Parallel Sons. But in trying to get together my own feature to direct, I unfortunately got mired in years of development hell and was becoming increasingly frustrated with the whole process. So I started looking around for a project closer to home that I could just start myself, without the need for funding, stars, etc.

Just around that time I went to a family reunion up at my extended family’s homestead in central New York State, and there was much talk among my relatives about the future of our dairy farm there. My mother grew up on this farm, it had been in the family for five generations, but no one in the sixth generation wanted to carry on with it. After 150 years, that tradition was going to end. And that was the genesis of my first documentary, American Farm.

IDA: What inspired you to make Incident?

JS: It was the release by WikiLeaks of that stunning cockpit video recording of a U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed two Iraqi journalists and a number of other civilians, some armed, most unarmed. I believe this piece of video is one of the most significant historical documents to come out of the whole war, because the unedited version shows in real time just exactly how our modern wars work: the difficulty U.S. forces face in distinguishing the "enemy" from non-combatants, the extreme hazards faced by civilians in just walking down the street of their own city. And of course, the cruel, barbaric spectacle of the whole event, the relentless targeting and destruction of those trying to help the wounded, was just impossible to ignore. Never has the inhumanity of warfare been so completely unmasked.

But almost as disturbing to me was the treatment of this video by the U.S. mainstream mass media as just another political football to have the same tired, staged "debates" where talking heads spout predictable opinions. The TV coverage often seemed more about the video itself—was it wrong to release it? Who is this mysterious Julian Assange?—than the tragic event it depicted. So I turned to the web to try and find out more, and that’s where I found an online interview with Ethan McCord. Here was a soldier who said he was on the scene, who helped rescue two children caught in the crossfire, yet he was completely absent from our TV screens. Why? Because he had also turned vehemently against the war. And the vision of a soldier speaking out against the mission is simply not allowed into our mainstream discourse. So no matter what Mr. McCord had to say about witnessing this event, you would not be seeing him on CNN or ABC.

IDA: How did your vision change over the course of the filmmaking process?

JS: I have always envisioned making a feature-length doc that would look at this event as a sort of microcosm of war—how one act of violence ripples out through many lives, Iraqi and American, in so many destructive ways. Ethan’s was to be the first interview and I had begun contacting others in his battalion who were on the ground that day for background research. However, as I began to put together Ethan’s material I realized that his story is so compelling, the transformation of his character from gung–ho warrior to anti–war activist so complete, that it could stand on its own as a short film. And so I put together Incident in New Baghdad as a short about one man’s personal experience inside the insanity of war, and how that permanently changed him. I am hoping now that this short film has been recognized in such a visible way, that I will be able to get the support I need to complete the feature version.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making the film? How did you overcome them?

JS: The biggest challenges for me in making this film centered around the use of Ethan’s photographs of the war, particularly of the scene of this U.S. helicopter attack. As soon as I saw these images I realized that, as horrifying as that helicopter footage was, it paled in comparison to the nightmare on the ground. I knew I had to use some of these images, their depiction of the truth about war was just too important to ignore. Yet it weighed on me. I understood that these were not just bodies, every one of these people had families somewhere. So I undertook their use with a great sense of responsibility and used only those images I thought were absolutely necessary to make audiences aware of what had happened, and how Mr. McCord experienced it. Recently, the film has been criticized by some reviewers as somehow exploiting a tragedy. But I feel strongly that my job as a filmmaker, that every artist’s job really, is to look at the thing that most people do not want to see. And in this country, we do not like to look at the ugly truth of our wars.

This decision to make a film focusing on one man’s experience has also sparked quite a heated reaction among some Iraq War veterans, who seem to feel that the film is somehow misrepresenting what happened that day. I have explained many times that Incident in New Baghdad is not presenting a definitive account, and that I still intend to make a larger film with more perspectives. But a lot of this reaction goes back to well before the film was even begun—as soon as Ethan began speaking out publicly and challenging the wisdom and morality of our wars, he was vehemently attacked and ridiculed as a traitor. Some of this rage out there has even translated into physical threats against Ethan and his family. It is sad but not surprising really—when as a country we so often use violence as a means to an end, we should not be shocked when those we train to do so bring that attitude home.

IDA: As you’ve screened this film, how have audiences reacted? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reaction?

JS: Well for one thing, I certainly did not expect the film to quite strike the nerve that it did. It premiered at Tribeca and won the doc short category, which sort of blindsided me. I guess you work for so long in a kind of cocoon when you are editing something and can become quite removed from the effect your work is going to have on a first-time viewer.

I have also been very pleased at the discussions the film has started about a range of topics, not just about the war itself but also about how information is disseminated in America, about the issues of transparency and accountability, and especially about the psychic damage that many veterans carry home with them. The suicide rate among our Middle East war vets is alarmingly high—well beyond the casualty rate overseas. Yet there is no sense of national urgency about this—like the wars themselves, the suffering of our veterans remains invisible to most of us, a burden borne by a tiny percentage of the American population. The rest of us go shopping.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

JS: Well, of course there are the giants like the Maysles brothers and Frederick Wiseman, whose films have inspired thousands of documentarians. I recently saw Wiseman's Titicut Follies, which is still, after more than 40 years, a deeply disturbing experience in the way it takes you inside the hidden world of an asylum. The film asks a profound question without ever stating it explicitly: who is more insane, the inmates or the society that puts them away?

I love the layered complexity of Errol Morris’s work; I think The Fog of War is an absolutely masterful character study—and the fog in the title extends to the subject himself, who is constantly seeking to reinvent himself on camera in a fascinating and maddening way. Character is central to me in my own work, how people tell their stories, how they look at their lives, how they struggle for awareness and meaning. At bottom, Incident in New Baghdad is a film about empathy, about one intense and pivotal moment when a soldier picks up a bloodied child and asks himself, "Am I a killer, or am I a father?" And in that heartbeat, he must decide, and he decides to maintain his humanity. Exploring those moments of human crisis, the emotional dilemmas that we face where our split-second decisions tell us who we are—that to me is what documentary film is all about.

Incident in New Baghdad is screening at DocuDay LA at the Writers Guild of America Theater and at DocuDay NY at the Paley Center for Media as part of IDA's program of 2012 Oscar®-nominated films.

Learn more about Incident in New Baghdad at the film's website.

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