Filmmaker puts unique focus on Iraq
A Portland freelancer takes an unusual route to war and brings back what the mainstream media haven't
Friday, November 19, 2004
SHAWN LEVY
The embedded reporter/photographer is a unique feature of the war in Iraq. On national news networks and local stations alike, the spectacle of familiar reporters out amid the rough stuff, operating from the vantage point of U.S. troops, has become a regular sight.
But Portland filmmaker Mike Shiley wanted to go deeper.
A freelance journalist who has traveled extensively throughout the world, Shiley said he felt an instinctive need after Sept. 11 to "contribute to the understanding of these people whom we've branded as our enemies."
When it became clear the United States would invade Iraq, he saw his opportunity.
"I knew that there was more to the story than what the mainstream media was going to report," he said.
Problem was, even though he's an experienced journalist, filmmaker and adventurer, Shiley wasn't part of the mainstream media. So he devised a makeshift means of embedding himself.
First, he volunteered to shoot footage of Northwest Medical Teams in the spring of 2003 as the group worked in northern Iraq during the invasion. After returning home, he used that experience as leverage in a deal with Portland TV station KATU, which agreed to assign him to cover the Oregon National Guard in Iraq.
In late 2003, Shiley made himself a press pass at Kinko's, used his own frequent flier miles to get to Amman, Jordan, and crossed into Iraq with an ABC television convoy.
His movie -- "Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories" -- that resulted from his efforts will be premiered today at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Scottish Rites Center, S.W. 15th Ave. and Madison St.
It's a full-bodied, feature-length portrait of a country hit by war and of a military force that has come from halfway around the world to do a dangerous job.
Shiley's camera captures his fellow journalists, ordinary Iraqi citizens and two units of the Oregon Guard. There are images of battle, of daily life in Iraq, of soldiers contending with their missions and their emotions, of the devastation of cities, of vast, empty deserts.
Shiley submitted the film to a variety of film festivals, including Sundance and Cannes , and is touring college campuses and arts centers around the nation, hoping to give more viewers a chance to see a side of this conflict that the media hasn't captured.
Tickets are $13 for balcony seats and $11.75 for the main floor. For more information, call the box office at 503-241-2575. To see clips from the film and learn more about its production, visit www.InsideIraqTheMovie.com.
Shawn Levy: 503-221-8332; shawnlevy@news.oregonian.com