At the age of 32, film director Ian Olds is older than the majority of the soldiers featured in his documentary "Occupation: Dreamland." But after spending six weeks capturing them in combat and at rest, he is truly able to appreciate their experience.
This past Wednesday, the audience was transported from room 112 in the Center for the Arts to the war in Iraq with the Army's 82nd airborne unit. The screening of "Occupation" was a feature in the ongoing Torture Forum Series.
For 78 minutes, Olds and co-director Garrett Scott follow soldiers stationed on the front lines in Fallujah. With guns in hand, the troop walks around the once highly populated city, now consisting of ruin and rubble.
"What we were seeing wasn't a performance," Olds said.
The filmmaker shows that soldiers living seven men to a bedroom for six months are able to laugh, watch TV and porn together, but are still plagued by the same underlying questions: "What are we fighting for? Why are we here?"
Many soldiers interviewed say the incentive is a fight for oil. They are given orders to secure areas and keep resistance down, with minimal explanation of why.
"Bottom line is we follow the orders of the President of the United States," one soldier said.
Those orders often include night raids on Iraqi homes, where families are found hiding together in corners or closets. Sometimes the families are asleep on the floor when their homes get raided.
Soldiers' frustration is another key aspect of "Occupation," as many begin to act violently towards men in Fallujah.
"I thought it was an amazing movie," said Amalia Rubin, sophomore Asian studies major. "We tend to either demonize or glorify people - there are shades of gray."
There were some missions and meetings, however, that Olds and Scott were not able to film. They also were given no clue as to what happened to detainees with heads bagged and hands tied behind their backs.
"What if good people can do horrible things?" Olds asked.
After pictures were released showing the torture at Abu Ghraib, it is now much clearer what may have happened to Iraqi detainees.
"Spiraling disaster - I was overwhelmed with that feeling," Olds said. "It was the despair that I came back with. It didn't change my views on the war. I thought it was a disaster before."
Olds portrayed the daily life of an American soldier in Iraq with sympathy and concern. Those featured are men, some barely twenty years old, who had enlisted from all over the country. Some only had a ninth grade education, or had wives and families at home. Some signed up because they didn't know what else to do with their lives.
"If you told me back then I'd be in the Army, I would have told you to go f*** yourself," a soldier said in the film.
The film has won several awards, including the 2006 Independent Spirit Award for Emerging Documentary Directors.
It was screened as part of the Forum on Torture, which is scheduled for every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in room 112 in the CFA until Nov. 15.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
