E-mail a friendJames Longley
original airdate February 9, 2007
Filmmaker James Longley is used to winning awards. A Student Academy Award winner for his short documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, his most recent effort, Iraq in Fragments, won an unprecedented three jury awards at the ‘06 Sundance Film Festival and, recently, an Oscar nod. Longley has worked as an English teacher in Siberia and a newspaper copy editor in Moscow. He's also the founder of Daylight Factory, a production company committed to creating documentaries about international subjects.
James Longley
Tavis: James Longley is the filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Iraq in Fragments." The compelling movie tells the story of how the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq has left behind a shattered country now in the throes of a civil war. The film is in select theaters across the country. Here now a scene from "Iraq in Fragments."
[Film Clip]
Tavis: James Longley, nice to meet you.
James Longley: Likewise.
Tavis: And congratulations on the nomination.
Longley: Thank you.
Tavis: Three hundred hours of film, I'm told, that was cut down to a ninety-four minute documentary.
Longley: That's right.
Tavis: Three hundred hours of film for a ninety-four minute documentary. How do you make those choices?
Longley: Well, it's tough. You know, actually there is another film besides this one, a short film, that was made in addition to the feature, so it's difficult. I filmed six different stories, three stories wound up in the film and, you know, in the end, it's stories that fit together best. You know, you try to take the moments that are the most revealing and that work together.
Tavis: Top-line for me the three stories that do make it in this project.
Longley: Well, the first chapter of the film is about an eleven year old auto mechanic who's living in Baghdad and working for a kind of despotic boss. You know, it's about his life, how he's torn between work and school. It's also about his relationship with his boss, which is kind of a metaphor for his ambivalent relationship with power that a lot of people have now in Iraq, so the society as a whole. You see what's going on in the country also through his eyes.
Then the second chapter in the film is about the rise of Shiite power. I followed the movement of Moqtada al-Sadar in the south of Iraq as they changed between political resistance to occupation and armed resistance to occupation, and I cover that transition.
Then the third segment in the film is about the Kurds in northern Iraq and how they want to have their own state, they want to have an independent country and it's told through, again, a father and son story in the northern part of Iraq.
Tavis: I was just reading another article. I've read so many of late. But I was just reading another article before I walked on this set today about the record number of journalists who have perished in Iraq covering this war. Looking at all the footage that's transpired, I'm fascinated at how you got around. It is a blessing and, on some levels, a miracle, given what you were shooting, that you're still here. How did you navigate that?
Longley: Well, it's true. I was there for two years. During the first year, it wasn't so bad. You could say that western journalists weren't really targeted. But then, after the first year, that really changed. I would say that in April 2004, the climate in the country, the relationship between the Iraqis and the westerners who were there, that all shifted.
So it did become very dangerous. Colleagues of mine were killed, colleagues were kidnapped and, really, I think it's a lot of luck that you need to have when you're moving around the country just not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tavis: What is the driving force for you to do something like this? That sentence just came out of your mouth with ease that you had friends who perished, friends who were murdered, and yet you put yourself in harm's way. What for you justifies putting your life on the line to get a project like this?
Longley: You know, there are a lot of journalists who choose to work in conflict zones and, when you do it, you know or you should know that you're taking your life in your hands and that it's something which could cost you your life, could cost you your health.
I think what drives people to do it is, you know, sort of the professionalism, that they're looking for a way to tell a story which isn't going to be told otherwise, and their dedication to their craft that they're doing. I mean, not to be self-serving, but, you know, you have to really want to do it. If you want to badly enough, then you'll take the risks.
Tavis: To your point now, is it worth it to take the risks to tell this particular story knowing that it's a story that's being counter-spun back here in the states where the project is going to be seen?
Longley: Well, that's another thing entirely. I mean, I think the media in the United States, there's a whole spectrum of the way the conflict is covered. Mostly the difference between a film like mine and the mainstream media is just the practicalities of how stories are told. I was there for two years. I have enough time to develop relationships with my subjects to film them over time as things happen. If you're doing daily news journalism, you just don't have that ability.
You know, the journalists who are working in Iraq are commensurate professionals, they're really astounding people. I think, on that level, that's not where the news really gets made. You know, the news maybe is more manipulated back in the editorial level, the choices that are made higher up in the organization.
Tavis: I'd like to think we live in a world where love matters, where love wins. When I say love, I mean suggesting that we accept the notion that all life has value, that all life has equal value. I'd like to think that we live in a world where we accept that proposition. I know that I'm not stuck on stupid. I know that we don't live in a world where people, by and large, accept that definition.
That said, how do you juxtapose doing a story like this and getting Americans to care about it? You know, you've done so much work here to tell these three stories in this particular piece. Do you ever wonder whether or not all the energy, the effort, the love that you're putting into the process will be met with an audience, say, of Americans who you can't get to feel the stories of these people because they happen to be in that place over there that we've been told is a horrible place to be?
Longley: Well, you know, I don't really think that's true. I think Americans are good people and I think Americans like people. I think that, you know, what I'm trying to do in this film is make a film about ordinary people, their lives, something that you relate to and understand that you can maybe see the world through their eyes. You know, maybe that's the difference between what I'm doing and, you know, the job of someone for a daily news. They're covering the events, they're covering the car bombs -
Tavis: - and the question is, can we see the world - that's a provocative statement - can we see the world through the eyes of an Iraqi individual?
Longley: I think we can and I think we have to. You know, if you want to understand what's going on in Iraq, you have to understand the situation from the point of view of the people who live there. You know, if you don't understand what's going on in Iraq, then our democracy, you know, becomes quite flawed.
Tavis: Let me shuffle back to where we began the conversation, to close by congratulating you on this Oscar nomination. So what does an Oscar do for a documentary like this? Just the nomination. What's it do?
Longley: Well, in the first place, probably there will be a lot more people seeing the film.
Tavis: That's a good thing (laughter).
Longley: As a filmmaker, you want people to see it. It also means I'll probably have less trouble making my next film. Those are two important things.
Tavis: That's a good thing. His name is James Longley. The piece is "Iraq in Fragments." He has been nominated for an Academy Award for this documentary. Congratulations again. Nice to have you on the program. All the best to you.
Longley: Thank you.
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