In May 2003, the same month
that George W. Bush stood on an aircraft carrier off
California declaring “Mission Accomplished,” and a month
after Iraqis began organizing a grassroots armed resistance,
Bingham, was on assignment in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district,
hot on the trail of the last sighting of Saddam Hussein.
While there, the 39 year-old
photojournalist got a tour of the
largest Sunni mosque in Baghdad,
named after the seventh century imam, Abu Hanifa. Bingham
recalled that, as she drove away from the mosque, her
translator mentioned that one of the men they’d just met
said he was with the resistance. She filed this away in the
back of her mind.
Before returning to the U.S.
the next month, Bingham watched news reports, trying
unsuccessfully to find out who was beginning to violently
oppose the U.S. occupation and why. She talked with a
photographer-colleague, Steve Connors, a former British Army
MP, who had observed the same lack of coverage.
Between them they had 33 years
experience covering conflict zones and decided to
collaborate on reporting what till now has been the most
visibly under-reported story of the Iraq war. By August
they were back in Iraq for another 10 months, Connors to
film and Bingham to write.
“This film is seen as somehow
really radical,” the 48 year-old Connors said. “I’ve
covered 10 conflicts and this is the first time I’ve heard
it’s radical to cover the other side. As a German friend of
mine asked, ‘Americans consider this news?’”
Bingham added, “It’s just a
really important story. If your work is covering conflict,
it’s just what you do. You cover both sides, or in some
cases three or four sides.”
“Imagine if all the reporting
from Chechnya was done through Russia’s point of view,”
Connors interjected, “Or if all the news about Palestine
came through Israel? In broader terms it’s a ridiculous
notion.”
“We still apply a healthy dose
of journalistic skepticism,” Bingham said. “We didn’t take
at face value everything we were told. That’s why when
people say to us, ‘This is biased, it only presents one
side,’ we say yes, it does only present one side but it’s as
honest as we can get. Most of the time we’re bombarded by
one-sided coverage from the U.S. point of view.” Finished
Connors, “Even including who from the other side gets
quoted.”
One example of how much
difference perspective makes, Connors said, can be as simple
as the usage of the term “Sunni triangle.”
“I never heard that term from
an Iraqi. There are many Sunnis living there, but that area
is majority Shia, so Iraqis would never call it that. It’s
another example of how all our news comes from the lens of
the military.”
“Yes. America,” Connors
quickly answered when asked if the pair had a particular
audience in mind when they made “Meeting Resistance.” Added
Bingham, “This is basic journalism. We want to make it
available to whoever can get their hands on it.”
One audience the film was made
available to was a roomful of active duty soldiers, officers
and enlisted, in Baghdad earlier this month.
ABC News was there and
asked two young soldiers who patrol Baghdad nearly every day
with the Third Infantry Division, what they thought after
seeing the documentary.
Sgt. Mike Kelley told ABC,
“When you try to be compassionate and see things from their
point of view, this is sort of reinforcing that, saying
yeah, this really is how they feel. They’re normal people
and they’re pissed off because we’re here and we’re not
welcome.”
Added Specialist Travis Barnes,
“We just don’t know all the rich details that make these
people up and tell us who they are and why they behave the
way they behave, and their history. It’s stuff we need to
know.”
One thing that surprised the
filmmakers as they were in the midst of their project was
how quickly a decentralized resistance developed against the
occupation.
Bingham recalled that, “We
didn’t know what to expect at all, but what we found was
that the vast majority of people we spoke with didn’t wait
to see how the administration of Baghdad was going to go.
They just saw they were being occupied and that occupation
required a response. Most of the people we interviewed were
organizing within a week (of the fall of the Saddam Hussein
government in early April, 2003), finding people to work
with.”
“None of these people required
leadership,” Connors submitted. “No one told them what to
do; they did it as an act of personal conscience. And if
you follow that line of thought you can see that a leader in
that situation is simply someone who has a few more skills
than you do. If, after a while, he veers off from opposing
the occupation he might get killed, or in some fashion you
settle with him and get another leader. In a strange way,
it’s almost democratic.”
One factor that may explain the
relative quickness of the Sunni resistance, Bingham
surmised, was that “Sunnis have more of what we would call a
‘Protestant’ view of their religion. They knew they were
right because of their individual interpretation of the
Koran; whereas the Shia have a more Catholic relationship
with God, with a worldly spiritual leader who interprets the
Koran for them.”
Both journalists acknowledged
that the process of making their seminal film left its mark
on them.
“It’s given me a sense of
empowerment,” Connors offered. “There are of course many
difficulties – raising money and all that, but we’ve done it
all without the resources of a major corporation. To be at
as many screenings as we can to answer questions, night
after night, is one way of demonstrating ‘We are not a
corporation…here’s what we found, take it or leave it.’
Theoretically, you always know you can do that, but to
actually do it and go up against all established
thought, that’s strengthening.”
Bingham observed that she
learned how much of a challenge a project like this is and
how important it is to have someone to work with who feels
just as strongly.
“We’ve been called intrepid,
insistent and dogged,” the Louisville, Kentucky native
explained. “When you cover conflict, especially when your
country is involved, giving up is unacceptable. But if I
was doing this by myself I think I would have given up.”
She added that “To see how our
policies are carried out overseas; to be on the sharp end of
that, you get a very different view of how we’re
perceived…and how I perceived my own country. You know, the
myth of the democratic and free America is somewhat real on
some level, but when you are faced with the hypocrisy of our
actions in light of those values, it’s a really tough thing
to reconcile. I found I was trying to hold the both of
those realities together or consider perhaps one may not be
true. It truly challenges your core beliefs.”
An example of that was when a
heckler in New York tried to put her into a corner by
demanding to know if she was “an American or a journalist?”
“If you’re gonna make me choose,” Bingham answered him,
“I’d say ‘a journalist.’”
Asked if she would have
answered that way a few years ago, she thought a moment and
replied, “Yes, but not as quickly.”
Her collaborator interjected,
“Six years ago that question would never have been asked.
Now certainly, we’ve heard allegations of treason.”
Considering another project is
premature, Connors explained. “We feel committed to getting
this film to where the discussions we have after each
screening are happening all over the country. Then we can
feel like we can take a rest and look at another project.”
Bingham concluded by looking
beyond the particular message of “Meeting Resistance.” “This
film is clearly about Iraq; it is clearly shaped by the
culture, religion and history of Iraq. But it is also a
film about the human condition under occupation as seen
through this history…we shouldn’t be surprised.”
Mike Ferner is a freelance
writer from Ohio.
mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net
