Afghanistan Documentaries
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- StarsDumbaliAyse EldekFatimaInitiated in July of 2001, Pashtun filmmaker Vida Zaher Khadem's documentary about her brother's return to their homeland of Afghanistan takes on deeper meaning than she ever suspected when the male-dominated society of her Taliban-controlled country. When Vida decided to return to Afghanistan to explore their family tree, even her own uncle tried to dissuade her from overstepping her gender boundaries and assuming the role of director for security reasons. Later, while traveling to the remote villages of her family tribes, Vida was frequently asked to wait in the car while the men in her crew captured their footage. A mere four weeks after returning to the United States, the film crew was witness to one of the most ferocious terrorist attacks in modern history. Realizing that since the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were based in Afghanistan the American authorities will likely seek her crew out for questioning. Shortly thereafter, Jawad Wassel, Vida's mentor and cinematographer in Afghanistan, is murdered while attempting to complete his own film FireDancer. In the aftermath of that tragedy, Vida sets aside her own film and convinced producer John C. Roche to help her finish FireDancer, which would subsequently become Afghanistan's first ever submission to the Academy Awards. Return to Afghanistan is a far reaching meditation on one woman's quest to remain faithful to her family while railing against a society governed by rules she detests, and attempting to maintain her balance while caught up in a war between the East and the West.
- DirectorHavana MarkingStarsRafi NaabzadaLima SaharHameed SakhizadaA documentary about the simultaneously unifying and divisive effects of Afghanistan's version of the TV talent show format on its society. It focuses on "Afghan Star" which airs on the Tolo TV channel in Afghanistan.
- DirectorJawed TaimanAfghanistan is a country devastated by the horrors of war, crime, violence and poverty. It is also a country blighted with the cultivation and supply of opium. Although it is estimated that 95% of all heroin on the streets of the UK & Europe comes from Afghanistan, few talk of the drugs that stay within the country and the devastating effects it is having on its children - the youth & future of Afghanistan. After the war on Terror and the fall of the Taliban, what future is there for the next generation? Jabar and Zahir are two 15 year old friends, whose own sisters, mothers and fathers are also addicted to heroin and opium. "Addicted in Afghanistan" is an intimate and uncompromising portrayal, filmed over a year, of the day to day struggles of a new generation of children addicted to heroin, trying to find their way in the new Afghanistan.
- DirectorJanus MetzDanish soldiers are sent to Afghanistan in 2009 for 6 months, to help stabilize the country against the Taliban. They're stationed on Armadillo military base in Helman province. Unlike other war movies, this is the real deal - no actors.
- DirectorDanfung DennisStarsNathan HarrisAshley HarrisThe Marines of Echo CompanyWhat does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home? Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film that asks and answers these questions with a power and intimacy no previous film about the conflict in Afghanistan has been able to achieve. It is a masterpiece in the cinema of war.
- DirectorJames Der DerianDavid UdrisMichael Udris'Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies. Facing long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military adopts a controversial new program, 'Human Terrain Systems', to make cultural awareness a key element of its counterinsurgency strategy. Designed to embed social scientists with combat troops, the program swiftly comes under attack by academic critics who consider it misguided and unethical to gather intelligence and target potential enemies for the military. Gaining rare access to war-games in the Mojave Desert and training exercises at Quantico and Fort Leavenworth, 'Human Terrain' takes the viewer into the heart of the war machine and the shadowy collaboration between American academics and the armed services. The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team. After working as a humanitarian activist and winning a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford, Michael Bhatia returned to Brown University to conduct research on military cultural awareness. A year later, he left to embed as a Human Terrain member with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. On May 7, 2008, en route to mediate an inter-tribal dispute, his Humvee hit a roadside bomb and Bhatia was killed along with two other soldiers. Asking what happens when war becomes academic and academics go to war, the two stories merge in tragedy.
- DirectorChris Alcock
- DirectorTanaz EshaghianInside Afghanistan's Badam Baugh Women's Prison, where half of the inmates are locked up for 'moral crimes.
- DirectorAlex QuadeStarsDouwe BlumbergMax BowersBart DeckerIt was the news the world waited for after the 9/11 terror attacks: a report of the first American troops on the ground in Afghanistan. All at once, the world's attention focused on an iconic photo of small teams of U.S. Special Operations Forces doing something no American military had done in nearly a century: ride horses into combat. That photo inspired artist Douwe Blumberg to sculpt a monument to these 'Horse Soldiers' now at ground zero. Alex Quade's short documentary expands on her original investigative reports for CNN.com and The Washington Times. Vice President Joe Biden quoted Ms. Quade's stories during the dedication of the statue in New York. "The courage of the first into battle is what guarantees the courage of those that follow," Vice President Biden said. "Horse Soldiers of 9/11" is the winner of a National Edward R. Murrow Award, an American Legion 4th Estate Award, Military Reporters & Editors Award, a Communicator Award, a Telly Award, a Monarch Film Festival Audience Choice Award, and Gig Harbor Film Festival Director Award. Director ALEX QUADE is a war reporter and documentary filmmaker, who covers U.S. Special Operations Forces on combat missions. She's the only reporter ever embedded long-term with these secretive units downrange, with no crew or support. Extreme storytelling & silent risk-taking lie at the heart of what Quade does. She's received 2-Edward R. Murrow Awards, & the Medal Of Honor Society's Excellence in Journalism Award. Quade started her career at the White House; she's worked for CNN, FOX, HLN, CNNI, The New York Times, & The Washington Times. Her films include: "Horse Soldiers of 9/11", narrated by actor Gary Sinise, and "Chinook Down", investigating the fatal shoot-down of a helicopter in Afghanistan. Quade was supposed to be on that helicopter. She serves on the Board of Military Reporters & Editors.
- DirectorGeorge GittoesSnow Monkey is an epic portrait of daily life in Jalalabad, where art activist Gittoes recruited gangs of war-damaged children to shoot local, Pashto-style films: vibrant, colorful and infused with the violence they experience on a daily basis.
- StarsPaterson JosephBarack ObamaNancy PelosiThrough unique access to the President, his inner circle and his political rivals this four-part series tells the story of how Barack Obama tried to reshape the United States and the cost to himself, his party and the nation.
- StarsKevin ConroyJ.J. McCoolKyle BoucherSoldiers recount their experiences in one of the worst places of Afghanistan through helmet cameras and testimony years after their tour.