Unlike a documentary
about an historical event dusty with age, 36-year-old Bushwick
filmmaker Garrett Scott’s "Operation: Dreamland" was
shot as the events unfolded.
Along with co-director Ian Olds, Scott trekked to Iraq in August
2003 to film American soldiers’ experiences during the occupation
of Fallujah.
Scott and Olds ate, drank and slept with a platoon for six weeks.
They bunked at a bungalow in the former Baathist resort called
"Dreamland" with a group of U.S. Army airborne infantrymen,
documenting the young men’s full range of emotions: their heroic
acts, boredom, doubt, vanity and camaraderie.
Traveling without an interpreter, the filmmakers didn’t even
know what Arabic-speaking Iraqis were saying into their camera
until they returned to the United States to have the footage
translated for subtitles, Scott told GO Brooklyn in an interview
Tuesday.
And those subtitles chillingly predict the carnage to come.
The directors went on night missions, when the soldiers broke
into and searched Iraqi homes while the rounded-up family members
huddled together in the darkness. The footage, which Scott said
was shot through a night-vision telescope taped to a consumer-grade
camera, colors the events with an especially eerie, surreal glow.
"It was really disturbing going in there," recalled
Scott, who said he and Olds were concerned about the ethics of
filming the families. "We knew we were adding to these people’s
humiliation – quite clearly by sticking a camera in their faces.
The lieutenant would say, ’Go easy with the camera, they have
enough to deal with,’ and I’d say, ’Alright.’"
Still, Scott knew he had to use the footage in order to give
a complete picture of the soldiers’ experience.
"I hoped we could use it without making it look like a ’Cops’
episode," he said.
"Operation: Dreamland" is not a series of dry, talking
head interviews. Scott and Olds’ footage puts the viewer in the
thick of the action, conveying the soldiers’ fear and trepidation
when bullets and shells are exploding; the tears over a fellow
soldier’s burning body; and the laughter among friends. The filmmakers’
balanced, human portrait of these soldiers leaves it up to the
viewer to decide whether their sacrifices could ever produce
peace – or just more bloodshed.
Filmmakers Scott and Olds will be available for Q&As at 5:30
pm and 7:30 pm, on Saturday, Sept. 24, and at 3:30 pm and 5:30
pm, on Sept. 25 at Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St. in Manhattan.
For admission prices and additional screening times, call Cinema
Village at (212) 924-3363.
– Lisa J. Curtis
