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They Met the Resistance
by Mike Ferner
 On one of those beautiful, fall Sunday mornings that can make you feel all is right with the world, filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors discussed their new documentary about Iraqis fighting the U.S. occupation, “Meeting Resistance,” 84 minutes of unflinching wallop destined to unhinge the way millions of Americans see their country’s role in the world.
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 member of Veterans For Peace and a
writer from Toledo, Ohio. He can be reached at:
mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net.
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