From the WSJ Opinion Archives
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
First Person Plural
Three producers put 150 video cameras into Iraqi hands.
At a time when shrill political diatribes dominate the documentary scene, along comes an authentic work that dares to let the subject speak for itself--literally.
This spring, film producers Eric Manes, Martin Kunert and Archie Drury sent 150 digital video cameras to Iraq and invited Iraqis to tape whatever they wanted--and then pass the cameras onto someone else. The three had no idea how the victims of first Saddam Hussein and then of the chaos that accompanied his fall would react.
By the end of last month, the producers had received some 450 hours of footage, taped all over the country with some 2,000 Iraqis. The scenes in their completed film, "Voices of Iraq" (www.voicesofiraq.com), come as a shock.
Yes, there is a mother sobbing in her kitchen because her son and four other family members have just been killed in the crossfire between U.S. soldiers and looters. There are stunned survivors picking through the ruins of a church bombed by insurgents. A tiny baby died there; its burned mother lies in a coma and its father has gone insane.
But mostly, overwhelmingly, there are signs of life and optimism. Iraqis have filmed themselves in busy streets, bustling markets and a packed amusement park, the bulbs on its rides lighting up the night sky. There is a jubilant graduation ceremony at Baghdad University, with singing, dancing and squirted confetti, and street celebrations after Iraq placed fourth in soccer at its first Olympics since 1988.
Yes, a few people tell the camera that it was better under Saddam, and in Baghdad many express fear or bitterness about the lack of security. In general, though, the Iraqis have taped each other making plans for the future: celebrating the freedom to get a passport or an e-mail address and to write, broadcast and express any opinion they like. We see people rebuilding a children's theater; artists talking about the contribution they will make to world culture; a heavy-metal band whose members improved their English studying Megadeth and Metallica CDs; a young boy making a direct appeal to Arnold Schwarzenegger for some real weights with which to build his own (scrawny) body. Their enthusiasm and resilience are mind-boggling.
So, too, is their ability to put even the most infamous acts in perspective. As one man says: "The Abu Ghraib scandal has shaken your country--but those prisoners were Saddam's henchmen. What you saw on TV: I was personally tortured by those \[Iraqis\] and tortured much worse."
And in August, when the campaign of bombings surges in Baghdad, the people in the videos don't curse the U.S. One man blames Saddam for giving shelter to Islamic radicals for years. But most also blame their neighbors in the region, whose real target, as one man asserts, is Iraq itself: "Many Arabian governments think the democracy success in Iraq is a danger for them, so they cooperate with all the terrorists in the world."
"Voices of Iraq" is not easy to watch, especially when the voices are so optimistic: "I want to be a lawyer," "I want Iraq to be the greatest country in the world," "I want to get married." What if they're wrong? (Their comments are intercut with Internet videos made by insurgents planting bombs.) Then again, who knows better what is possible than the people of Iraq themselves? It's good that Messrs. Manes and Kunert (who cut their teeth on MTV reality TV) and Mr. Drury thought to ask them.
