The War Tapes

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton gave 21 soldiers videocams and had them shoot their own movies.

That became The War Tapes. The doco that won the Best Documentary at Tribeca Film Festival.

MediaShift's Mark Glaser interviews Scranton. Some excerpts:

But rather than simply turn over the entire production to the citizen soldiers who serve in the National Guard, Scranton created a hybrid film — with much of it shot by soldiers in the field, and another portion shot by Scranton and her crew back home with the soldiers’ family and after combat. So what they created is more of a collective effort in storytelling, with Scranton choosing the three soldiers who are featured in the film, and the soldiers themselves interviewing each other and other members of their troop.

The result is an eminently watchable — and at times horrifying — film of war told in an eyewitness style that’s often missing from mainstream dispatches and politically charged films. The soldiers are patriotic and want to serve their country, and you get a sense of their motivation for going to war. But you also see the pain for their families back home, and the difficulty they have fitting back in and resocializing after combat duty.

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