Christian Frei: Documentary shows authentic moments

Christian Frei: Documentary shows authentic moments

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At this year's Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest),
which ended on Sunday, one of the most attended films was War
Photographer, a 2002 Academy Award nominee.

A documentary film by Swiss director Christian Frei, it is an
inspiring movie that portrays the life of American war
photographer James Nachtwey.

The film not only documents wars in Kosovo and Ramallah, but
also tells the story of Sumarno, a handicapped man who lives with
his family near the railroad tracks in Jakarta.

There also are shots of a man being lynched in the capital, as
well as of sulfur mine workers in Kawah Ijen, East Java.

"Because those things are forms of violence also," said Frei,
43.

Born in Schonenwerd, Switzerland, Frei studied the visual
media at the Department of Journalism and Communication at the
University of Fribourg. He has been working as an independent
director and producer since 1984, and works regularly for Swiss
National Television SF DRS.

War Photographer is his seventh documentary film, and has
received tremendous positive reaction.

Frei was here recently to attend a screening and discussion of
the film. He sat down with The Jakarta Post for a face-to-face
interview last week, and below are the excerpts.

Question: Why did you choose James Nachtwey as the subject of
your film?

Answer: It was in 1997. I was on a plane to the Chicago Film
Festival and had a magazine, Stern. I was struck immediately by
the outstanding photographs of Afghanistan, and the fact that
there was a man who was interested in it while nobody was at that
time.

I started to do research on the photographer. The fascinating
thing about him is he's not the cliched cynical and hard-boiled
war photographer portrayed in Hollywood movies. He is calm, a
loner who doesn't like to make a fuss about his work.

Q: I heard he turned down your proposal at first...

A: It took me around four months to get his approval. I
understood his objections that a photographer like him is
supposed to be invisible. A film crew would disturb his work. It
was also dangerous and he couldn't be responsible for other
people's lives.

The solution was attaching microcameras the size of index an
finger to his camera. Nobody has done it before. The crew was a
cameraman who also acted as a sound technician.

Me? I was some 20 to 30 meters behind.

Q: You spent two years following him, right?

A: Yes. We started with the general election in Jakarta in 1999.
We came for the rioting but fortunately it was less violent than
everybody expected.

We then decided to include the social sequences because we
considered poverty to be a form of violence. Then we filmed the
poor people living along the railroad tracks. It was a difficult
start because we had to adjust, to get to know each other.

Q: How did you find the people along the railroad tracks, and the
lynching? Were they coincidental?

A: I did a little research before. But Nachtwey found the
lynching. He's just phenomenal, he always works. It was Sunday
morning, everyone was tired and other journalists were sleeping.
But he was already on the road.

He already knew Jakarta well, exactly where the areas and
points of conflict were. He checked them out and found the
incident.

The situation was very dangerous but he photographed it
anyway. He does not chase the sensational aspects. But he wants
the world to know the ugly pictures, and maybe it can put
pressure on the (local) government.

Q: Why did you choose to be a documentary filmmaker?

A: I love documentaries because they feature less stereotyping. I
believe that reality leads sometimes to the most interesting,
dramatic stories.

Many people consider feature films to be royalty. But I see a
revival of interest in documentaries worldwide. Somehow it is
owing to the reality TV shows. I don't consider those shows to be
documentaries, but they show that authentic moments with real
people are interesting.

It's very important for every country to have documentaries
because it can become a form of communication between cultures
and countries.

Like how Islamic countries receive hatred from the United
States. Whereas they (Americans) don't know about the full range
of Islamic culture.

So, it's very important for us to document it to show
different aspects of Islam.

My next project will be in Afghanistan. About the Buddha
statue that was blown up by the Taliban, while the statue had
been there for centuries and was a symbol of Islam's tolerance.

The key (in documentary filmmaking) is to go beyond
stereotypes. Stereotypes can be dangerous. Not in the sense of
film, because James Bond is a stereotype but we all love it.
Bollywood is a stereotype, yet I love the movies. But stereotypes
in the real world can lead to racism, misunderstanding and
hatred. People like to think in one dimension.

Q: How did you feel going from war to war and filming it?

A: I had to learn what war is all about. I live in Switzerland
where the last war we had was, like, 200 years ago. So I wasn't
used to violence, rioting, the fact that people could be lynched
in the street.

In movies we see stereotypes of war, which involve adventures
and heroes. But in real wars these are hard to find. It was also
difficult to find both sides of the story. War is just terrible.

Q: What was the general reaction from people after they watched
War Photographer?

A: It's amazing how people have reacted, like saying the film is
the best documentary they ever saw. For me, the most rewarding
thing to happen was the reaction. It's even more rewarding than
the Oscar nomination.

I'm not saying this because I'm in Indonesia, but so many
people reacted so much to Sumarno sequence, saying that it was
the most touching part.

I think in documentaries, you are also able to make small
things very big. I told Nachtwey that I wasn't interested in big
blows. It's not a small thing that people live just beside
railroad tracks. But it's not as "sensational" as Sept. 11 or the
unfortunate Bali bombing. It's the very structural violence that
is very interesting because I'm not used to it, and many people
ignore it.