'Occupation: Dreamland' Part IV
The Hard Sell - the U.S. Army makes its case for reenlistment in Iraq
By the Hot Zone Team, Wed Jan 17, 8:50 PM ET
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 fourth clip from "Occupation: Dreamland," filmmakers Ian Olds and Garrett Scott take viewers inside a retention meeting in Iraq. The U.S. Army gives a hard sell for reenlistment, reminding the soldiers that it's not easy to just go back home and put together a life.
Below, Olds updates the Hot Zone on the status of some of the soldiers in the film and talks about his late filmmaking partner, Scott, who died of a heart attack shortly after the film was finished.
(Warning: There is a brief moment of profane language within this video clip.)
HOT ZONE: You mentioned that the reactions of the soldiers to the film were pretty positive. I'm wondering what some of them are up to? Did any of them reenlist?
IAN OLDS: A lot of the guys who said they wouldn't go back didn't go back. One of them is going to art school in New York. Another is working for the city in Chicago.
Another guy ended up going back and was wounded three times and received three purple hearts. He ended up losing his leg below the knee. Since then he's gotten an MBA and is going into investment banking.
Several of the guys — like one who was expressing a lot of doubt over there thinking he should go back to school — reenlisted.
I'd say about half the guys are still in. I think over there, people even ideologically in line with the war didn't feel like they were making any real progress. So, it was frustrating. When they get back, I think some of them didn't know exactly what else to do. For others, they realized the Army and the war have a purpose because they are involved in something big and the idea of going into some sort of menial civilian job just isn't worth it.
HOT ZONE: What was it like working with Garrett?
IAN OLDS: Although Garrett and I made the film together, the intimate access to the soldiers had so much to do with who Garrett was.
You watch some people interview their subjects with this ear for sound bites, trying get the subject to simplify their thought down to some little piece that will somehow be compelling on tape. Garrett never approached things that way.
When he spoke to someone he did so because he honestly wanted to know what and how they thought about something, how their mind worked. People can tell when you want something from them or simply want to know them. I know the soldiers felt that and they trusted him and they trusted us to portray them fairly.
Garrett had the most integrity of any one I've ever known, it was a quality that you could actually feel.
HOT ZONE: What is this legacy he left with this film and some of his other work?
IAN OLDS: That's something that I still can't quite get over or know exactly what to do with.
I began making documentaries with him and I went to Iraq to do this project specifically because it was going to be with him and knowing the kind of work we would do.
So for me, it's both having lost this incredible creative partner and one of my best friends who I spoke to every day for the last six years.
It's something that I am still thinking about most days and the only thing I know to do is to keep going forward and doing work, hoping that the stuff I've learned from him is still with me.
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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