Meeting Resistance (work in progress screening)

WORK IN PROGRESS SCREENING
dir. Molly Bingham/Steve Connors, 2007, 83 min.
Saturday, Mar. 3, 5:30pm; Forrest Theater
In person: Daniel Chalfen; Steve Connors; Molly Bingham
Somehow in all our government and mass media's hand-wringing about "insurgents" in Iraq, little attention has been paid to who they are and what they want. For all we know, they are just malcontent democracy-haters who like launching missiles and killing Americans. Meeting Resistance is that rare kind of journalism that seeks to answer the questions that the media never ask. Set in the streets, alleyways and tea shops of Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood, the film witnesses how the insurgents began to organize themselves, revealing why they decided to violently oppose the occupation and how and why their motives have changed. Shot over 10 months during 2003-2004, the film explodes one delusion after another, such as the notion that more troops will do the trick, and foretells Abu Ghraib, the inconsequence of Zarqawi's death, and many other developments. (PS)