I Have just returned from seeing this little gem.
This is the most confronting doco I have ever seen. However, every person in what we like to call 'The West' needs to see this film. Every politician who sends our youth to war, every person who denies entry to asylum seekers from war-torn Iraq (and its neighbours), and every person who has an opinion about our 'invasion' of Iraq.
We all know Michael Ware, that crazy Australian CNN reporter who was in the thick of it. I think Michael will excuse my use of 'crazy' because without these men and women who act as correspondents in war, we would never have perspectives not filtered by our governments.
Ware returned from 7 years in Iraq with over 300 hours of tapes from a handicam that he described tonight in person at the screening as his notebook for his writing. This is his 'accidental documentary'.
In this doco we see the fresh-faced Ware in Iraq just before the 2003 invasion. We see him as he becomes the favoured news outlet for the emerging group that would become Islamic State. We see him question himself, how dark the human mind can become and how desensitisation goes hand-in-hand with warfare. We see the fresh- faced young Americans who have been thrust into this warzone as little more that teenagers (and some still are). We see the tragedy for the people of Iraq. Then we see the conclusion that tests our humanity and how we see others. It will shake you.
Take a deep breath, buy a ticket and prepare to never be the same (but I think for the better).
Thanks Michael :)
