I was able to watch only the first 15 minutes yesterday of American Jihadist, a documentary by Mark Claywell. It was enough to confirm that I wanted to make time today for the whole film.
I interviewed Claywell on opening night about the role of the documentary as journalism in a time when the journalism industry is in such a state of flux, and focused more on profits than on paying what it takes to truly investigate a subject.
A lot of this comes down to money, and money was certainly a challenge -- American Jihadist was expensive to make because of the travel involved to Afghanistan, Lebanon, Bosnia and other places. How many filmmakers have to compute kidnap insurance in their expenses? But he and his producer and writer -- Jody Jenkins, a veteran journalist now working in Paris -- are pros. They raised the money it took to cover the subject.
This is one of at least two films at this year's festival that can broaden our understanding of the motivation behind people who fight for Islam, whether it's as the subject in this film -- a self-described professional soldier of Islam who travels to where Muslims are oppressed and will fight for them -- or the terrorists of al Qaeda. The subject of The Oath, by Laura Poitras, is a former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden, now living in Yemen and struggling with questions of faith and morals.
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I am sorry that I had to miss the film. I enjoyed, very much, "Tiny Furniture," however. Check out my posts at http://chrisreed.stevensonuniversity.org/
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