Franti isn't a film maker, he's a rock star, but very early in the war in Iraq, he took a handful of friends and flew into Bagdad for a first-hand view of the war. The first half of the film is in Bagdad, visiting homes, hospitals, and soldiers. For the second half, Franti flies into Israel and Palestine. He frames the first half of the film as the examining the beginnings of an occupation, and the second half as examining the long-term results of occupation. More than anything, you get the sense he was an American who wanted to see what's going on in the Middle East personally.
Franti is clearly an outspoken peace activist (wandering around in a war zone in flip flops and dreadlocks), but is mostly charitable in his story telling. There are scenes where he's deeply wrestling with whether his convictions are enough when he's in the presence of American or Israeli soldiers who's lives are on the line. In other places he (unaware of himself) broadly paints troops with his same contempt he feels towards the governments of the United States and Israel. So, it's a mixed bag as far as agenda vs curiosity, but it ends up feeling pretty human.
More than anything, I was overwhelmed by the faces and stories in Iraq. It left me with the strong sense that our media has not put any human faces to this war for me. I was deeply surprised by how much I liked these smiling little girls, these happy old men, these resourceful taxi drivers and doting grandmothers.
The story also brought a lot more clarity to me about the history and realities of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. If you feel as ignorant about that conflict as I do, this felt like a good place to play catch up.
Probably not available at your local Blockbuster, but you never know...
www.iknowimnotalone.com
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