Kaffeine Buzz
reviews independent and foreign films,
in addition to reporting the latest buzz behind
Colorado's film festivals.
starz docnight: Meeting
Resistance (Molly Bingham, Steve Connors)
In April of 2003, journalists Steven
Connors and Molly Bingham
began to chronicle the people behind the attacks
on U.S. government forces. Despite what came across
the media lines, the people of Iraq did not embrace
our presence in their country. Despite what Saddam
had done to his own people, the biggest enemy
in their minds was the U.S. And with every day
that’s spent there, the determination to
defend their country grows.
Interviewing several from the resistance, the
filmmakers take the viewer deeper than we could
have ever gone otherwise to truly understand the
plight of the Iraqi citizen and their dedication
to religion and duty. It also sparks questions
in the viewers mind, in a 'shoe on the other foot'
manner, about how we would react if another country
invaded us and took over our country and our lives,
capturing and torturing our family members and
bombing our neighborhoods.
A professor at Baghdad University also took on
the task of researching and studying his own people
to understand the motivations behind the loyalty
to push against outside forces.
The film spotlights the reality of what Iraqi
citizens from all walks of life really feel about
our forces being there. A man working out of a
shop, another man on the street selling newspapers,
a woman styling another’s hair in a salon,
a butcher, all of them resist the occupation and
want us to leave.
A woman lies dead in the street with a man by
her side. It could be her brother, her husband,
a cousin. From that frame to the next is another
man making a homemade bomb. The dedication goes
as far as common citizens putting aside money
for the resistance, as much as 20% or whatever
they can afford. And the rest, of course, comes
from outside sources.
The resistance also gets assistance from Iraqi
police who provide them weapons, which may well
have been paid for with U.S. tax dollars.
The citizens of Iraq and their brothers, those
who have come in from surrounding countries, target
first and foremost the Americans and next, any
of those who are collaborating with the U.S. occupation.
They recognize that some of their own are killed
in the process, but they seem to see all of their
citizens as martyrs. The goal is to defend their
own country at all costs.
What is really startling it to contemplate that
secretariansm, the civil war between the Shi’a
and the Sunni, may just be crafted by our own
intelligence, which could be just one strategy
to justify our continued presence.
After an attempt to assassinate Paul Wolfowitz,
he appears later to give the mission speech, that
the U.S. is in Iraq to “help Iraqi people
free themselves.”
From what is seen in this film, they don’t
see it that way. It doesn’t seem that by
any means are they looking for our help.
If ever there was a film to further nail a coffin
in any argument for staying in Iraq, in the no-win
situation we’re in that is draining our
country in more ways than one, this is it. The
sleeping giant has been awakened, and the fire
in its heart will never be extinguished as long
as we’re there.
