P.O.V. War Feels Like War

PBS Program

In the P.O.V. film, "War Feels Like War," filmmaker Esteban Uyarra documents the lives of international reporters and photographers covering the Iraq War. As coalition forces invade Iraq, several journalists decide to risk their lives by reporting the impact of the war on civilians. The film records their frustration, fear and horror as they travel to Baghdad to witness events ignored by other media outlets. The film also reveals the difficulties the journalists experience as they try to return to a "normal life" at home.

Uyarra was online Wednesday, July 7, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the documentary.

In 2002, Uyarra won the Best International Documentary and the Best Debut Director awards at the New York Independent Film Festival for his first film, "The Runner." He recently spent three months in Haiti filming the uprising for Great Britain's Channel Four news.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

________________________________________________

Esteban Uyarra: Thank you for watching the film last night. I'm here to answer your questions. I'm in Poland teaching documentary filmmaking in the middle of the mountains at the FilmFarm.

_______________________

Asheville, NC: Mr. Uyarra, What is it that drives you and other journalists to enter war zones at the risk of life and limb to report the story? What do these journalists have in common? War feels like war was a fabulous documentary, by the way. Great work.

Esteban Uyarra: I'm a filmmaker and I wanted to make a film about war correspondence for three years. Originally, I was going to film the journalists only in the hotel in Kuwait City and see what they brought back. The film was originally called The Hotel and I was not going to leave the hotel. However, I found out that people were desperate to cross the borders into Iraq. So I had to go and follow them through the country.

From my point of view, it wasn't that I wanted to go to a war zone, it's just that I had to or there would be no film. For most independent journalists, what you sense from them is that the war is history unfolding in front of their eyes and they want to be part of it... in the first row of the opera ... to see it close and personal.

_______________________

Seattle, Wash.: How many of these reporters that "refused" to be embedded weren't selected for the program or just flat out washed out of the program? Do you have the numbers? Thanks. Matt

Esteban Uyarra: I started with Tele Five Spain and they never made it into the film and also there was an independent Polish writer for their version of Time Magazine and there was a whole section that I filmed right at the end of the war involving CNN producers looking for proof of weapons of mass destruction. I spent a lot of time with them for about three weeks but never used the footage in the film.

_______________________

Portage, Michigan: How many Iraqi civilians have lost their lives during this war and the previous one, as well? Please include the number of children who lost their lives due to the sanctions.

Esteban Uyarra: I think there are at least 10,000 Iraqis who died during the bombings until George Bush declared the war was over. I'm not sure but you can look at the Guardian web site for more specific numbers.

_______________________

Sumter, SC: If you look for abuses in war you will find them. A balanced view would include all aspects of the war and not images and situations that support an anti-military point of view. I was there and I know what happened. I was one of the first in Baghdad and remained in country until August of 2003. Uyarra is brave and quite amazing, but not fair to those who risked their lives and did not ever consider abusing their power. My question is whose purpose does it serve to spin all military actions as abusive and where are the photos of soldiers caring for Iraqis and risking their lives to prevent civilian casualties.

Esteban Uyarra: The film I was making was not really about Iraq and the real angle was to follow the journalists. I was following the actions of any journalist I was with so I couldn't choose where to go myself. If the characters in my film were not doing anything, I wouldn't go off the track. I was filming the situations they were photographing or reporting. During the time I was in Iraq, none of the unilateral journalists had access to the military. So it was very hard to get a close perspective of how the Marines were feeling. I wish that any of the journalists that I was following had done a story on the troops and I would have been very happy to film those situations and put it in the film. If you remember, about a minute or so into film, you would see images of marines looking after wounded Iraqis. The idea of the film was never to make an anti-military or anti-American military movie but to show war as it is which is ugly and always from the point of view of the journalist.

_______________________

Hendersonville, Tenn.: Mr. Uyarra I really enjoyed your film.

My question for you is the friend of P.J. O'Rourke that was killed in the war Michael Kelly?

Keep the docs coming.

Thanks,

Bob

Esteban Uyarra: It was David Bloom that died who was his friend. PJ O'Rourke went briefly to the airport in Baghdad to meet the platoon where Bloom was embedded. He knew Bloom's family very well and he wanted to find out from the platoon about his experiences and what had happened in order to tell the family.

_______________________

Parkersburg, W. Va.: No questions, just congratulations for a most excellent job. This was a tough one to watch, but one that hopefully, many will see before Election Day. Thank you for your brutal honesty.

Esteban Uyarra: Thank you.

_______________________

Laguna Niguel, Calif.: After all that Stephanie had seen and it aseemed to affected her deeply emotionally what has compelled her to stay for several more years? And is she still photographing events there? - Stacey

Esteban Uyarra: Stephanie had been in Iraq months before the war started and she had made very close friends while there. She had photographed Iraq before the war and then she photographed during the war and made more friends and continued with her relationships with them. It made all sense from a personal as well as professional view to stay in Baghdad. At the moment, she is in Beirut, Lebanon for security reasons but she takes regular trips into Iraq all the time.

_______________________

Hollywood CA: I was struck by the images of news people running WITH the sopldiers in a combat situation. They were almost in the way.

Is this kind of scene common?
How do the soldiers feel about it?

Esteban Uyarra: I found it shocking myself but I don't know how most soldiers feel about that.

_______________________

New York, N.Y.: I am Polish and while watching switching the channels when I turned to channel 13 I heard Polish language. That was what made me stop at the beginning. Seeing Polish journalists from well known in POland RADIO ZET in the movie like that really touched me, but far more better and interesting was topic by itself. I work as a journalist for the Polish newspaper in New York, but I never went through something what all journalsists in your movie experienced. Congratulations on your work. It will be a pleasure to talk to you in person, but the questions I would really like to ask you is what were your first feelings after you finally put this movie together? Was it hard to go back to your normal regular life?
Katarzyna

Esteban Uyarra: When I put the film together, it was about eight months after I came back from Iraq. By then, my worries were more in the editing room than how I felt. When I left Baghdad, I spent a whole week in the Mt. Sinai in Egypt and we were there decompressing talking about anything else besides the war.

When I look at the photos that Stephanie took of me while I was working, it's as though I don't recognize myself and I don't remember what I was thinking.

It was a bit hard to get back to normal life. You learn through Heathrow Airport in London and you see all the people reading the newspaper looking really unhappy and you can figure out why. You come from a place where the city was bombed the hell out of it. And you come back to your normal life and look at the people going through their daily routine and they look very unhappy and you understand why.

_______________________

McLean, Va.: I have recently viewed the excellent documentary film "Control Room" that filmed in real time Arab Network coverage of the invasion of Iraq. It seems the U.S. media was more worried about retaining their embedded status rather than trying to give a balanced picture of the war. From my perspective U.S. media focused on the weapon systems and showing pictures of the exploding Bagdad skyline, whereas the Arab networks covered the human impact of the war. In your opinion, what were the significant differences between the U.S. coverage and the international coverage?

Esteban Uyarra: I was told that the way it works is that the embedded system proportionally links journalists to the amount of troops that the countries put in. For example, there would be 80% American journalists for the 80% of the U.S. troops. But if you were a journalist from Belgium, you left with what is happening on the ground with a civilian's story (because there were no troops and you couldn't get close to the marines). Most of the international media did not have associated troops in Iraq and usually find the news from the civilians perspective and the angle would focus on the casualties.

_______________________

Morgantown WV: Hello Mr Uyarra,
The reporters talked about how much danger they were willing to accept. Did they ever go places where you weren't willing to follow?

Esteban Uyarra: I cannot drive which meant that I had to take the risk of getting into someone's car and they made very clear that we might be going into very dangerous places. It was very clear from their point of view that they were happy to give me a lift but you could not freak out and ask them to dump you in the middle of war. That became the rule for most of the stories I followed. If I went, I went and had to follow them through their stories.

_______________________

Albuquerque, N.M.: It is facinating to read online how differently people interpret your work and that of the journalists in your film ... to be sure an intentional result.

It is so hard to find sources of information today that are not either too short or present nothing but a singular POV. On the corporate media today three sons in a single family were returning to Iraq for a second tour with their oldest brother re-enlisting and joining them. They thought it would be so great to be together. No one talked about the danger of their entire family being devastated by a loss of four at once, maybe all the children, it wasn't clear. It seemed to be nothing but an ad for enlistment in the dwindling armed forces and the reserves.

Do you think the POV style is a "better" style of presentation for you in general or do you see benefits to either style to present your POV?

Ford

Esteban Uyarra: Mainstream news works like daily news and headlines. Normally in most newspapers, you get a longer format -- magazine type-- at the end of the week about weekly events. I think news and documentaries are different in that the news of the day doesn't go into depth. And the documentary can expand an indepth story because of the length and format. In my film, there are no numbers or very little understanding of where you are.. it is purely about feeling.. very different from news that will give numbers of casualties and doesn't allow you to feel a moment in three minutes.

_______________________

Miami: Im starting in the photojpurnalism edition job for a news agency and saw your documental early this morning. What's the main message you give to a person that needs to decide to take a picture, capture an image in a middle of a hard situation (as war)and send it to the world mass media. Think and act? act and react? What's the criteria?
Thank you and congratulations, Cristina.

Esteban Uyarra: You see in the film that some journalists have ethical dilemmas and some will go over anything to get a photo and other people prefer to keep their humanity in exchange of not taking the perfect photo. I think that is a very personal choice. I think some get dehumanized during war and that individual has to live with that. It's fine that you get a photo but you have to live with yourself as to how far you go to get it. Some people go very far but the mere fact that they took the photo compensates because it is worth for people to see the photo. I don't think there is a set criteria.

_______________________

Hollywood CA: Have you read the book by NY Times jounralist Chris Hedges, "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning?"

IF so, did the book affect your report?

Esteban Uyarra: No.

_______________________

Washington, DC: While I acknowledge there are horrible aspects to OEF and OIF, why aren't there more positive stories coming out of the combined "war on terror"? Soldiers constantly are reporting back about the positive progress they make opening schools, establish vital services, providing much needed medical attention. However, on the whole, the media refuses to report these highlights, instead focusing on the negative "sensational" stories.

Esteban Uyarra: The combined war on terror? There was no terrorism in Iraq before at least from what I read and what I know. Iraq was a semi-secular country. Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden represent complete opposite worlds. It's like giving good news about a fire brigade putting a fire out that they set in the first place.

_______________________

Parkersburg, West Virginia: A lot of contraversy was brewing on the message boards last night. It appears that many folks think your report was biased and against Bush. Do you have any response to that? By the way, Thank You for the wonderful job you did in bringing this awful situation into the light.

Esteban Uyarra: My response is similar to what I said earlier. When I put this film together for the Amsterdam film festival about six to eight months ago, most of the questions from the audience asked about how I felt about being in a place like Iraq. When I put the film in Toronto fairly recently (about a month ago), at this time there were many Marine casualties, people asked me why I didn't include Marine casualties in the film.

My response was that my film was made from 20 days before and 20 days after the war when there were almost no Marine casualties at all. My film is not news.. it's a documentary and I can't update it to what is happening in Iraq now and what is evolving. All I could see was what the journalists were reporting.. Iraqis being disappointed and other times in the film you see Iraqis shouting that Saddam was bad and George Bush was good. I only filmed those things because the journalists were reporting those things. I was always filming behind the journalists and followed them to wherever they went.

_______________________

Esteban Uyarra: The film was intended to be a film that you could watch ten years later and to understand what it feels like entering into a war zone. Thank you for watching the film and hopefully people will realize these different point of views through these type of films. Without real information, there is no democracy.

_______________________