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08/04/2006Bringing the war homeFilms bridge gulf between U.S. and the conflict
Deborah Scranton, director of “The War Tapes,” talks about making films about war and the Middle East at Thursday morning’s filmmaker panel. TRAVERSE CITY — As fighting in the Middle East raged on thousands of miles away from Traverse City, six panelists weighed in on how their films are shortening the distance between Americans and the conflict. "Men at Work" director Mani Haghighi, "Three Kings" director David O. Russell, Deborah Scranton and Zack Bazzi of "War Tapes," author and former Navy Seal Chuck Pfarrer and Traverse City Film Festival co-founder Michael Moore participated. The panel, "Shooting War: You say I-Raq, I say I-Ran," was held Thursday at the City Opera House. The panelists discussed for about two hours the climate of war, the domestic and international film industry and whether filmmakers focusing their lens on war issues should take sides. The group represented a range of political and personal perspectives; Haghighi is a native of Iran and Bazzi has completed three tours of duty in the U.S. National Guard. Bazzi and several other members of 3rd Division of the 172nd Infantry Regiment participated in the documentary, "The War Tapes," filming all of the footage during an 11-month tour of Iraq. The director, Scranton, said it was her intent to allow the soldiers to offer their firsthand view of war. "It's an unfiltered and raw window into the Iraq war; it brings it home to you," she said. "I thought it was more important than anything I could have ever said." She said viewers learn more from the tactic, hopefully enough to "catapult them to care." Haghighi said that as a filmmaker and resident of Iran, it is difficult and invigorating to be Iranian during this time in history. "I can't say things anymore like I support Palestine, but Israel has these rights," he said. "It's so polarized, I'm sitting here hopeless." Despite his disappointment and pessimism about the current situation in the Middle East, Haghighi was united with the rest of the panel in agreeing that film can be used as a tool to show that, although our cultures and opinions may be different, human beings around the world have many similarities. "The more we understand each other, the less this will happen," Pfarrer said. Following the panel discussion, Russell said he was impressed by the range of topics the group covered as well as the audience participation. "I thought it was devoid of the toxic questions you get more in Los Angeles," he said of the question-answer portion. "Like Michael said earlier, Traverse City has an openness and freshness you don't usually find out there."
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