Waging Peace: Canada In Afghanistan
I received an interesting e-mail just before I journeyed to Kandahar earlier this year. It was from a fellow by the name of Brooks Bergreen, wishing me luck. That wasn't the interesting part, though: Bergreen had filmed a documentary entitled Waging Peace: Canada in Afghanistan about the Canadian effort in southern Afghanistan...on his own dime. And he was hoping to have me give it a look when I got back.
Bergreen spent four years as a private communications contractor in the country, working for both the coalition forces and for the Afghans, and came to the frustrating conclusion that "we don't have enough independent media there...people are suspicious of getting their news from the same place all the time." That sounded frustratingly familiar to me, and if that was what drove him to sink thousands of his own dollars into a documentary film with his own delicate skin on the line in the back of a LAV, then I figured it was worth giving the piece a look.
I'm glad I did. This is yet another piece of the puzzle, a view of southern Afghanistan that gives depth and context and texture to our understanding of the situation there.
Or, I should say, the situation that existed there three years ago. The footage was filmed in April of 2006, when LCol (now a full Colonel) Ian Hope was commanding the men and women of Task Force Orion under the watchful eye of BGen Dave Fraser. Funding challenges delayed the production until now, and as Bergreen said to me:
While I didn't always agree with the viewpoints that underscored the perspectives of Bergreen and the film's photo/videographer Richard Fitoussi, I found their documentary a worthwhile effort.
The filmmakers are coming from a different philosophical starting point than most readers of this blog, especially Fitoussi, whose Witness Photographic "aims to meet the growing needs of aid organizations and media agencies searching for images to foster awareness of environmental devastation, disaster relief, disease, war, and poverty." Fitoussi also has a special familiarity with and dislike of landmines. When I asked Bergreen about a number of places in the video where the Afghan campaign's legitimacy is contrasted with the Iraqi one, he was quite open about his negative feelings about the latter.
But this perspective adds a different sort of value to the production, that of a skeptic convinced. In Fitoussi's own words:
The film takes you into the back of a LAV on patrol, into villages and hills where the Taliban hide, and even into the tragic deaths of Cpl Randy Payne, Cpl Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell and Lt William Turner, who died in an IED attack just metres in front of the filmmaker. It also deals with a whole laundry list of popular misconceptions about the Afghan effort, from underlying concerns about the myth of Canadian peacekeeping and our supposed divergence from that tradition with this mission, to the persistent differentiation of the Afghan mission from the Iraqi one.
I found the interviews supporting these themes fascinating and on point. Duane Bratt, Jack Granatstein, Ian Hope - these were valuable and informative, although somewhat expected. But interviewing journalists covering the mission was an imaginative twist, especially given what they said.
Nick Spicer of CBC News:
Graeme Smith of the Globe & Mail:
Not what one would expect, and a more welcome contribution for it!
Regardless of a few niggling annoyances (getting ranks mixed up, or calling a patrol a shura), I think this documentary is worth watching. More than that, it's worth supporting: two men looking for the truth through their own biases, putting their lives and money on the line to do it, and telling a compelling story that will resonate with a more 'progressive' audience than most proponents of the mission could ever reach. Well done.
Bergreen spent four years as a private communications contractor in the country, working for both the coalition forces and for the Afghans, and came to the frustrating conclusion that "we don't have enough independent media there...people are suspicious of getting their news from the same place all the time." That sounded frustratingly familiar to me, and if that was what drove him to sink thousands of his own dollars into a documentary film with his own delicate skin on the line in the back of a LAV, then I figured it was worth giving the piece a look.
I'm glad I did. This is yet another piece of the puzzle, a view of southern Afghanistan that gives depth and context and texture to our understanding of the situation there.
Or, I should say, the situation that existed there three years ago. The footage was filmed in April of 2006, when LCol (now a full Colonel) Ian Hope was commanding the men and women of Task Force Orion under the watchful eye of BGen Dave Fraser. Funding challenges delayed the production until now, and as Bergreen said to me:
You would be surprised at how difficult it has been to do something like this without having a Global or CBC behind you. I'm not aware of any other grassroots projects like ours in Canada. I believe that the overall story while not current is still very relevant.
While I didn't always agree with the viewpoints that underscored the perspectives of Bergreen and the film's photo/videographer Richard Fitoussi, I found their documentary a worthwhile effort.
The filmmakers are coming from a different philosophical starting point than most readers of this blog, especially Fitoussi, whose Witness Photographic "aims to meet the growing needs of aid organizations and media agencies searching for images to foster awareness of environmental devastation, disaster relief, disease, war, and poverty." Fitoussi also has a special familiarity with and dislike of landmines. When I asked Bergreen about a number of places in the video where the Afghan campaign's legitimacy is contrasted with the Iraqi one, he was quite open about his negative feelings about the latter.
But this perspective adds a different sort of value to the production, that of a skeptic convinced. In Fitoussi's own words:
Learning about the Taliban and witnessing the tyranny they have inflicted on the Afghan people was certainly an awakening, and it was a very different experience for me to see that with my own eyes than it was to have a debate about whether or not Canada should be there without having seen that first. It's heartbreaking.
The film takes you into the back of a LAV on patrol, into villages and hills where the Taliban hide, and even into the tragic deaths of Cpl Randy Payne, Cpl Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell and Lt William Turner, who died in an IED attack just metres in front of the filmmaker. It also deals with a whole laundry list of popular misconceptions about the Afghan effort, from underlying concerns about the myth of Canadian peacekeeping and our supposed divergence from that tradition with this mission, to the persistent differentiation of the Afghan mission from the Iraqi one.
I found the interviews supporting these themes fascinating and on point. Duane Bratt, Jack Granatstein, Ian Hope - these were valuable and informative, although somewhat expected. But interviewing journalists covering the mission was an imaginative twist, especially given what they said.
Nick Spicer of CBC News:
It seems to me the sort of commentariat in Canada is trying to make an Iraq out of this...it's really about helping the Afghan people.
Graeme Smith of the Globe & Mail:
I think people forget that this is really a beautiful country. There's a lot of promise and optimism that's hard for us to translate into our media reports.
Not what one would expect, and a more welcome contribution for it!
Regardless of a few niggling annoyances (getting ranks mixed up, or calling a patrol a shura), I think this documentary is worth watching. More than that, it's worth supporting: two men looking for the truth through their own biases, putting their lives and money on the line to do it, and telling a compelling story that will resonate with a more 'progressive' audience than most proponents of the mission could ever reach. Well done.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 4:38 p.m.
2 Comments:
BZ.
Mark
Ottawa
For its few faults, I can't remember having seen a documentary more useful to the purpose of educating ordinary and not-well-informed Canadians about just what it is we're doing there, what we're trying to do there, and what's at stake.
Fitoussi came to hid endeavour with a healthy skepticism of the mission, and showed the courage to keep an open mind, and the intelligence to raise the most important question about the 2011 withdrawal date:
What happens if we leave?
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