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Home Front: Culture Wars

US 'suburbs more violent than Iraq'

2006-11-07

MORE fighting goes on in parts of suburban US than Iraq, according to Australian filmmaker George Gittoes who has just finished a documentary set in a Miami "war zone". Gittoes' latest feature, Rampage, contrasts life for a family living in the blue-collar community of Brown Sub, Miami, with ongoing fighting in Iraq. "It is much worse in Miami than it is in Baghdad," Gittoes said in Sydney today. "There is a sense of people with guns, drug dealers lairing at you ... and being there, I knew I was in a war zone." Rampage is the second in Gittoes trilogy of documentaries based on the war in Iraq. It follows the success of 2004s Soundtrack to War, which depicted American soldiers and their music in Iraq. The film will be released in cinemas around the world and Gittoes is expecting plenty of controversy. "Even left-wing Americans ... don't want to recognise the mess they've got in their own backyard," he said. Gittoes has spent much of his career travelling the world, painting, filming and photographing wars in places such as Rwanda, Afghanistan, and East Timor. "To me, this was just another war zone and it was in America," he said. Gittoes said there were similar stories to Rampage in Australia's indigenous communities, although he said the task of translating that on the big screen would be difficult. "The film that I'd like to make in Australia I couldn't make," he said. "All of our politically correct laws and things wouldn't let someone like me make a film like this in an Aboriginal community in Australia." The final film in the trilogy, Fearless, and will examine the impact of the Iraq war on the American soldiers who have fought there. "It is about the difficulty of exit and how much the soldiers have changed and become hardened warriors and how much the people they're fighting have changed as well," he said. Rampage opens nationally on November 30.

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Fifth Column

Moore took Aussie clips for hit film

2004-07-28

AUSTRALIAN artist and filmmaker George Gittoes has objected to American Michael Moore's use of some of his work a controversial movie. Mr Gittoes said today Mr Moore had incorporated about 17 selections from his own documentary film Soundtrack to War into Fahrenheit 9/11. They depicted American soldiers and their music in Iraq. "I was concerned of course for my soldiers because their interviews were taken out of context," Mr Gittoes said on Channel 9. "There are about 17 scenes from my documentary in his film. I wouldn't go so far as to say he lifted (them). Gee, now what is the word for that, oh yeah, plagiarism. "Michael got access to my stuff and assumed that I would be happy for it to be in 9/11. I would actually have been quite happy for it not to be in 9/11." Fahrenheit 9/11 is highly critical of the Bush administration and its conduct of the war on terror and the Iraq conflict. Mr Gittoes said he had decided to let the matter ride, but would prefer people see his film. "Mine's a better film. My film's balanced. I don't think there's a lot of balance in 9/11." Mr Gittoes said he had some contact with the company, Westside Productions, associated with Michael Moore, but had no idea his work was in Fahrenheit 9/11 until it was screened at the Cannes film festival. "When I finally discussed it face to face with Michael, I realised that no-one wants to be a spoiler. He's an artist and that's how he makes his work. "He doesn't go out to Iraq like I do and dodge bullets. He makes it from mainly archival footage and the stuff that other people shoot." Ah, light dawns, I wonder what the raw footage MM used would reveal about how he twisted it to fit his agenda? Mr Gittoes said Soundtrack to War explained the role of music in the lives of the young American soldiers in Iraq. It includes soldiers performing their own rap, gospel and rock music. "The work of a soldier is hard and this new generation of soldiers are better educated and more articulate," he said. "In my film they are creative. I chose to work with soldier artists, musicians who are rappers, they are gospel singers and rock and rollers and show how they are creating music from their experiences. "The music is just absolutely important. These soldiers said it was more important than food. It gives them a world to get into, a world to escape from."

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