press release

In a series of eight programs, Why War? will look at the grounds for, and the implications of, war as considered by an international selection of filmmakers and writers whose work and words are interconnected through shared influences. The impetus for the special curated program for 2005 stems from conversations author Walter Mosley (What Next) has had with Full Frame's Executive Director Nancy Buirski and Cara Mertes. "If we can begin to understand some of the causes of war," says Mertes, "perhaps we can move closer to peace. It is a timely topic, and one that bears on-going exploration as the country continues down an extraordinary course to a global war being fought ostensibly to achieve the world domination of 'democracy'."

Walter Mosley's award, Seeds of War, is given annually to the film and filmmakers who best explore the issues behind conflict and give voice to those whose lives have been most affected. Following the screening of Patricio Guzman's The Battle of Chile (Part 2): The Coup d'État (1976), Mosley will join Chilean-born author, poet and playwright Ariel Dorfman (Death and the Maiden, Speak Truth to Power) to speak about war's relationship to art, specifically the mediums of poetry, theatre and film. Ariel Dorfman will also be the moderator of the Artists in a World at War panel, an extension of the Why War? program, which will consider the documentary filmmaker's role as "witness" to global strife, conflict, and warfare. Why War? curator, Cara Mertes, will be on the panel.

Eugene Jarecki will present his documentary Why We Fight (2005), a film that just won the American Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Jarecki's Why We Fight is a powerful essay on American foreign policy in the age of the military-industrial complex. Peter Raymont's Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004), an audience-award winner for Best World Documentary at Sundance, documents the experience of a small group of UN Representatives, led by Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, who stayed during the 1994 Rwanda massacre to offer protection to the few people they could save as the genocide unfolded around them. A Q&A with Raymont will follow the screening.

Other programs include a screening of Klaartje Quirijn's The Brooklyn Connection (2005), a film about Florin Krasniqi, a charismatic Brooklyn contractor who is one of the biggest suppliers of arms to the Kosovo Liberation army; the US Premiere of Allessandro Cassigoli and Dalia Castel's Good Times (2004); Norman Cowie's Scenes from an Endless War (2002), a film that challenges popular assumptions about war by placing common commercial images in unexpected contexts; and the Southeast Premiere of a film by one of Germany's best-known experimental filmmakers: Harun Farocki's War at a Distance (2003) — a continuation of Farocki's provocative filmic essays on the relationship between wartime production and destruction.

A rarely-screened feature-length documentary, Winter Soldier (1972), made by fifteen independent filmmakers of Winter Soldier Collective is part of the Why War? program. Winter Soldier captures the terrifying testimonies of more than 200 ex-GIs at the 1971 Detroit Winter Soldier Investigation concerning American atrocities in Vietnam, and is both riveting and repulsive in its evocation of the pain and hypocrisy that that war has come to represent. The devastating testimony of individual soldiers offers insights into the causes and repercussions of war which resonate more sharply every day. For a generation for whom Vietnam is simply a name and a story in a history book, the visceral quality of the testimony is both specific to the Vietnam experience, and universal to the experience of war. A Q&A with filmmakers Barbara Kopple (Bearing Witness) and Lucy Massie Phenix will follow.

Festival founder Nancy Buirski says that Full Frame Documentary Film Festival's program Why War? intends to spark a dialogue that links the causes of war to the pursuit of peace, with suggestions for how individuals can contribute to that forward motion. "One of our continued commitments at our festival has been to this idea of curated thematic programs — this year's looks at an issue that impacts us all in profound and lasting ways."

Why War? received support from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the North Carolina Arts Council.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is produced by Doc Arts Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The presenting sponsors are The New York Times and Duke University.