Everything's Coming Undone
1 hour ago
Monday, 27 August 2012
Permission to Engage: Victims' families and an ex-US soldier unpick the Wikileaks film that showed US forces killing Iraqi civilians in 2007
Filmmaker: Shuchen Tan
On July 12, 2007, the US military shot several Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, an event that shocked the world when footage of the attack was later released by Wikileaks. "The attack took place on a Thursday, when residents of the area had gone to a local market," explains filmmaker Shuchen Tan. "When they saw helicopters hovering over, they ran to their houses, thinking they'd be safe in there but it was those very houses that were blown up." Permission to Engage traces the people involved in that fateful day and hears their versions of what happened.
Those killed included a young Iraqi photojournalist and his assistant, a father out with his children and some neighbours who were caught in the attack while trying to help the wounded.
"It was quite challenging to track down the victims and their families. We didn't have names, didn't have addresses, we didn't have anything," explains Tan.
"And when we found them, most of them didn't want to share their stories. They felt they had been left by the West and not treated well."
The families of the victims and a disillusioned former US soldier who was serving in Iraq around that time unpick the footage in forensic detail and relate their accounts of what happened.
Via
On July 12, 2007, the US military shot several Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, an event that shocked the world when footage of the attack was later released by Wikileaks. "The attack took place on a Thursday, when residents of the area had gone to a local market," explains filmmaker Shuchen Tan. "When they saw helicopters hovering over, they ran to their houses, thinking they'd be safe in there but it was those very houses that were blown up." Permission to Engage traces the people involved in that fateful day and hears their versions of what happened.
Those killed included a young Iraqi photojournalist and his assistant, a father out with his children and some neighbours who were caught in the attack while trying to help the wounded.
"It was quite challenging to track down the victims and their families. We didn't have names, didn't have addresses, we didn't have anything," explains Tan.
"And when we found them, most of them didn't want to share their stories. They felt they had been left by the West and not treated well."
The families of the victims and a disillusioned former US soldier who was serving in Iraq around that time unpick the footage in forensic detail and relate their accounts of what happened.
Via
Fantastic Four #98 (May 1970)
Via
Sunday, 26 August 2012
On behalf of the Aldrin family we
extend our deepest condolences to Carol & the entire Armstrong
family on Neil's passing-He will be missed
LCD Soundsystem's Final Bash, Relived
The New York band, mostly through the efforts of its frontman, James Murphy, has a sound that's not quite electronic, not quite punk rock and not quite dance. (Whatever it is, though, it makes you want to dance.) The lyrics — poignant, ironic, revealing — add to the appeal. It's a marketable appeal at that: Two years ago the band's third album, This Is Happening, debuted in the Billboard Top 10.
Of course, other indie bands have cracked the top of the charts now and then. Here's the thing that makes the members of LCD Soundsystem different from just about anyone else at the top of their game: They quit. Three albums in, with sold-out shows and overwhelming critical acclaim, Murphy pulled the plug on it all.
The decision was complicated. Murphy acknowledges as much in a new documentary called Shut Up and Play the Hits, which will play in theaters for one night only on July 18. The film follows LCD Soundsystem through its final concert, a nearly four-hour, sold-out affair at Madison Square Garden last April. It also tracks Murphy offstage, winding down and reflecting during the band's final days.
"I don't want to be a famous person — I like riding the subway, I like eating food, I like being a normal person," Murphy tells an interviewer at one point. "I'm 41 — I don't think I could adjust to the kind of weird dichotomy. But is that a good enough reason? If you believe in your band and you claim to like music, and you claim to like making music for people, is that a good enough reason to quit?"
Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern are the directors of Shut Up and Play the Hits. In the full version of this segment, they share stories with NPR's David Greene about the making of the film, as well as their own perspective on the end of LCD Soundsystem.
Listen Now
Download@'npr'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
