Another War Documentary by a Photojournalist

Battle for Hearts and Minds Trailer from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Yesterday on Lens there was a very interesting article written by NY Times contributor Michael Kamber. His criticism was aimed at the Oscar nominated movie, The Hurt Locker. Apparently the movie has received other criticism as well for being entirely unrealistic in it's portrayal of the U.S. military in Iraq.

When the truth is stretched too thin, a movie loses credibility it also loses it's ability to influence the viewer. Documentary films, on the other hand, are simply more credible. With recent changes in technology, most notably the ability to shoot video more cheaply with the Canon 5D mark ii and the 7D, it's safe to say that more photojournalists will be going in this direction. I think that most people applaud this.

Two photojournalists, who have recently made war documentaries, are trying to market their documentaries using the film distribution model. This is very interesting because they are bypassing the broken business models of traditional media (magazines, newspapers and TV news). Restrepo, by Tim Heatherington and Sebastian Junger, recently won the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize. Today, I give you the trailer to Danfung Dennis' Battle for Hearts and Minds. I think this just may be the light at the end of the tunnel for this profession. I wish them both much success.

Thanks to Poul at the Bombay Flying Club for bringing this to my attention. Poul, also was the point man helping me produce my multimedia piece, A Troubled Paradise.