Was it worth it?

A famous “blogger's” video essays from Baghdad, appearing now at the Vancouver Film Festival, give an answer—but not in a satisfying or convincing way

by Elvy Delbianco

That's the question posed in Baghdad Blogger/Salam Pax-Video Reports from Iraq. Was the removal of the dictator and the resulting social disorder in Iraq worth the attack?

This eight-episode collection of video web logs is a tour of the world's latest political “ground zero,” with producer, director and self-proclaimed “bad architect” Salam Pax as your guide. The search for an answer includes frequent stops for commentary and vox populi in the streets, shops and homes of Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala.

A clear answer, however, is illusive. Clearly, people are freer and cherish their new liberty, whether it's a quiet visit to a Gropius-designed mosque previously closed to the public for over 20 years, or boisterous and blood-soaked Shiite religious ceremonies. Street demonstrations are as commonplace as political parties and newspapers number 150 and counting. Even those that don't like the new order at least appear comfortable expressing their opinion openly.

But the price of this freedom is the almost complete lack of security. In major urban centres gunfire forms part of the white noise, the spent shells of car bombs litter the streets, and, on the eve of Ramadan, merchants nervously anticipate a “fundy” attacks on their beer and spirits kiosks.

In between are the contradictions, such as a hotel lobby displaying both sex-content television and a portrait of Ali, the “instant personality cults” of militant clerics filling the vacuum left by Hussein's departure, and public ambiguity over the fate of the former dictator humiliated in the now-famous televised examination for lice by his captors.

These vignettes of life in Iraq are the most intriguing aspect of this collection—the universal mundane struggles of work, food and shelter presented against the unique Iraqi backdrop of chaos and hope. It's a complicated depiction that undermines an easy reading of the benefits and costs of the invasion.

Unfortunately, Pax throws a brick through his delicate spider's web of complexity. Not only does he answer his question “Was it worth it?” with a definite “Yes,” he does so in the second episode, colouring the remaining reports with a rose-tinted filter. Baghdad Blogger may be a “video diary” and, as such, not subject to the same standard of objectivity one expects—usually in vain—of the news media. However, Pax's tendency to dismiss viewpoints contrary to his own positive assessment of the invasion doesn't exactly make for a compelling documentary. In a typical episode, he rejects a complaint that American patrols bring only militant attacks and destruction to Iraqis, with the speculation that the complainant is an uncompensated businessman. This is a conceptual constraint, a little like someone trying to stuff themselves into a pair of pants that are clearly four sizes too small.

This lack of objectivity is overshadowed by a more fundamental problem with Baghdad Blogger: it doesn't hold together as a film. This compendium of video essays, with their opening and closing sequences and colour-bar interruptions defies any narrative arc or satisfying exploration of the big issues it raises. Instead, the whole ends up being somewhat less than the sum of its many little parts.

More importantly, the video imagery is simply not very compelling. It's not much of a film.

This is not to suggest that strong images are totally absent. Aside from the stark visuals of self-flagellation with whips of chain, the best include tanks submerged in a reclaimed marsh, a ride in a truck full of high-spirited, RPG-toting militants, and an incredibly long queue of cars thirsty for gasoline.

But these represent all-too-brief exceptions to the rule of jiggly/grainy video of talking heads. After several episodes, this approach comes across as a crutch for a noticeable absence of timely reporting. A disturbance at a school by a teenage supporter of Hussein is flatly related well after the fact. And although Pax builds some tension towards an anticipated terror attack in Karbala, nothing is caught on tape and the events are described over dissociated visuals.

Too often these flat scenes were accompanied by a hefty portion of eye filler. This came in several flavours: glitzy (high-speed visuals of generic street life), bland (repetitive shots of a pair of helicopters buzzing the Baghdad skyline) or cheesy (the ad nauseam use of the zoom-in/reverse-track effect popularized way back when in Hitchcock's Vertigo, but used here for no apparent reason). Worst of all were the mind-numbingly dull takes of Pax typing his blog. This occurred so often that at times I thought I was watching a documentary about a clerk.

Which brings us to our narrator. Salam Pax seems a reasonably intelligent and avuncular guy, comfortable enough to belittle his skills as an architect and willing, on occasion, to express a little humour. But much of the time that he is on screen—and he is on screen a great deal—Pax was either unwilling or unable to look directly into the camera and, as a result, came across as a bit “shifty”—not exactly a desirable characteristic in a guide leading a tour through a war zone.

Despite these many flaws, it's difficult to completely dismiss Baghdad Blogger. The strength of these video essays lies in the glimpses it provides of the daily struggle for survival in Iraq and the apparently heartfelt observations of Iraqis that Salam Pax manages to catch on tape. One of his subjects even provides a satisfying answer to the opening question, expressing himself in a manner that is equal parts world-weary and optimistic: “The bitterness of the past makes it easier to accept the recent changes.”

Baghdad Blogger/Salam Pax-Video Reports from Iraq plays at the Vancouver International Film Festival Wednesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 7.

****