Director and cinematographer Laura Poitras worked alone in Iraq for over eight months to create My Country, My Country, an Academy Award-nominated documentary that explores the state of democracy, both in Iraq and in the Unites States in the months leading to the January 2005 elections.
To complete her documentary, the U.S. gave Poitras access to the “Green Zone,” or the “brains” of the its occupation, according to a synopsis on the documentary by PBS.
My Country, My Country focuses on Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi doctor, devout Sunni Muslim, father of six and a political candidate in Iraq’s largest Sunni political party. Dr. Riyadh practices medicine at a free clinic in Adhamiya, a Sunni anti-American neighborhood in Baghdad. Poitras met Dr. Riyadh at Abu Ghraib prison and followed him as he spoke with detainees. ”
Marsha Orgeron, the director of film studies at N.C. State, said the documentary gives Americans a chance to get inside another world.
“We are disengaged as to the general reality of what Iraqis are up against,” Orgeron said. “It is the U.S. who invaded Iraq, and it is our responsibility to think what that means for the people living under these conditions.”
She said it demonstrates the uphill climb to rebuilding Iraq.
“It shows the incredible complexities of living in Iraq now, especially for people who are aspiring for an established democratic society and yet are living under the daily pressures of the new Iraq,” Orgeron said.
A lot of the problems the U.S. has had in Iraq are foreseeable, according to Michael Struett, an assistant professor of political science. Struett said it is not clear that U.S. presence in Iraq is a stabilizing force and that U.S. actions may even contribute to chaos because of the way the U.S. is perceive in Iraq.
“It was a bad idea to invade Iraq,” Struett said. “The most logical thing [to do] is to reduce our presence.”
What is important to remember about My Country, My Country is that it was the work of a single woman who acted as her own camera person, her own sound person and her own editor, according to Orgeron.
After completing My Country, My Country the U.S. put Poitras on the Department of Homeland Security’s watch list and notified that her “threat rating” was the highest the Department of Homeland Security assigns. She was detained at an airport in Vienna and at JFK International Airport while trying to return to the United States, according to PBS.
The U.S.’s presence in Iraq continues to be a hot topic around campus as well. According to Laura Crain, a freshman in Spanish, the U.S. is doing more damage than good in Iraq.
“I’m sure it is really tough [to be an Iraqi citizen] because they have to deal with insurgents, and I’m sure that puts fear or anger into most of the Iraqi people,” Crain said. “That is not easy to deal with”
Daniel Brumfield, a freshman in First Year College, sees it another way. He said he thinks the U.S.’ reasons for the invasion of Iraq are legitimate.
“The [Iraqi people] are not as up to par as we are, but they still live life, but they have suicide bombers every day who want to mess [their lives] up,” Brumfield said.
