'Occupation: Dreamland' Part III

'Be careful of Fallujah'

Note: This is the third in a series of special documentary features on the Hot Zone. We'll be posting interviews with filmmakers along with excerpts from their films, which reflect some of the themes and issues covered on this site. Bookmark the Hot Zone and be sure to check back in the coming days for more. 

In the third clip from "Occupation: Dreamland," young Iraqis are outraged that American soldiers have detained a Muslim woman. They say this cannot be done in a place like Fallujah. They warn, "This is Fallujah. Be careful of Fallujah."

Almost as an confirmation to that threat, an RPG attack occurs a few blocks from the soldiers and the filmmakers. The soldiers scramble to find the location of the explosion and the combatants behind it. Viewers get the sense of how futile this is; the soldiers have little information and the insurgents will probably be gone by the time they find anything.

We continue our conversation with filmmaker Ian Olds below, as he describes how he was never afraid of IED explosions until it was too late.

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HOT ZONE: Do viewers see you in the film? Were you protected like the soldiers were? You were capturing real explosions and gunfire on camera; were you scared?

IAN OLDS: We wore civilian clothes and we did have body armor. We borrowed the helmets they were wearing because we didn't have our own. In terms of the fear, I was very scared. I had never ever been in that kind of environment before, so the way both Garrett and I dealt with it was to look around and see how the soldiers were reacting.

HOT ZONE: But they're soldiers.

IAN OLDS: Yeah, that's true, but somehow that was the only marker I had.

The first time anything ever happened — we heard some gunfire or an RPG a couple of blocks away — I just felt this incredible surge of adrenaline which I realized was kind of dangerous because I didn't feel afraid.

So, I looked around at the soldiers to see how they were responding to make sure I wasn't exposing myself in some unsafe way. The moments are so quick that often the fear about it would happen later, not at the time.

For instance, we had always heard about IEDs so we were conscious of what they meant, but after one actually went off in front of us, that definitely changed how it felt going out. After that, you look at every piece of dirt a little differently.

It's such a specific feeling when you can actually feel the blast wave from something or the way it sucks the air out of you. So, after you have that visceral experience, it wasn't quite the same going out again. During that actual moment though, it was hard to be afraid because it was so quick.

HOT ZONE: Another thing that is clear in the film is the language barrier. There is an almost comical scene at the beginning where the soldiers are mimicking a bomb with their hands trying to ask the locals, who don't speak English, if they had seen any. There are other cases where it's clear through subtitles that the translators don't always convey the right message to the Iraqis or to the soldiers. What did the language barrier mean for you and for them?

IAN OLDS: That's a very important part of it. They had very few translators for such a large number of people. A platoon would often share one translator and they might be spread out so there are often occasions when an American soldier who speaks none of the language will have to convey a point and it rarely worked.

Also, some of the translators didn't have very good skills. Sometimes they didn't speak very good English. So later on, watching the footage, you could see whole conversations going in two different directions because one little miscommunication would start to expand. By the end of the conversation, they'd be talking about two separate things.

There is one situation where early on in the film where a guy ends up being taken away with a bag over his head. If you watch the footage you realize it really comes down to a miscommunication. What happened was he told the soldier "I'm with you; I'm not against you." The translator translates it as, "I want to work for the U.S.A. Army." The solider interprets it as being this smug remark, zips him up and takes him away because of that.

You realize this inability to speak a language or understand the subtlety of communication is kind of disastrous.

To learn more about "Occupation: Dreamland" or to buy a copy of the DVD, visit the film's Web site here.

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