Who Distributed Hell and Back Again Documentary

Originally published in the Director Interviews department on Oct. half-dozen, 2011. Hell and Dorsum Again is nominated for Best Documentary.

Maybe the most viscerally harrowing documentary account of the state of war in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan yet, Danfung Dennis' Hell and Back Over again is an intense visual experience, one that with the dynamism and fluidity of a narrative motion-picture show takes you lot into the heart of the conflict in this troubled corner of the globe. Dennis, who left behind a career in economics to go a state of war photographer in the middle of the aughts, focuses on Sargent Nathan Harris, a Marine infantryman in Repeat Company 28 and fearless young southerner from rural N Carolina who was seriously wounded during an ambush in 2009. Taking us from the frontlines of the conflict, where nearly pointless tribal councils feature American soldiers trying to convince men twice their age to abandon their villages and style of life while their children starve, all the way back to the home front, where broken soldiers try to readjust to the banalities of American life, Dennis has crafted a startling document apropos the costs that America and Afghanistan accept incurred in a decade of state of war.

Dennis, who was amidst our 25 New Faces in Independent Moving-picture show last yr, won a Documentary Cinematography prize at this year's Sundance Movie Festival, where the film received its world premiere the past January. He has shot prize-winning photographs in gainsay zones for Newsweek, The Associated Press and The New York Times. Currently he is at piece of work on apps and virtual reality platforms that will bring the experiences of war zones into our living rooms. Hell and Back Again opens at Film Forum in Manhattan today.

Hell and Back Once more managing director Danfung Dennis

Filmmaker: You lot've worked as a war photographer for quite some time. How did this project grow out of your works as a still photographer?

Dennis: I had been working every bit a field lensman, mostly for Newsweek and The New York Times. I had been covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006. I felt that, after ten years of war, the imagery wasn't having the aforementioned kind of impact that information technology one time did. Society had become numb to images of war. I moved into this new medium to try to shake people from that indifference. I had no intention of actually making a flick. It evolved from an operation in 2009 where 4,000 Marines were beingness airdropped behind enemy lines. I embedded with Echo Visitor 28 from the 2nd Marine Division. They were going into this insurgent stronghold and shortly later on getting off the helicopters, Echo Visitor was attacked. The fighting centered around this pile of rubble that became known every bit Machine Gun Hill. Afterward the finish of the day, 1 marine had been killed, a dozen were suffering from heat exhaustion and near all of u.s.a. had run out of water. It was quite a grim state of affairs.

That'south where Sargent Nathan Harris gave me his last canteen of water. That's where we showtime met. I followed his platoon equally they pushed further during this offensive. He actually was an exceptional leader, he had been amid the commencement ones off the helicopters, had two deployments nether his chugalug. Information technology wasn't until back in North Carolina about six months later, where I was waiting for the marines to return and they were stepping off the buses, reuniting with their families, when I realized why Nathan wasn't there. I asked someone, "Where is Sargent Harris?", and they said he was hit two weeks ago, that he'd been shot in the hip during an ambush. He'd been moved back to the U.S. and had undergone five surgeries, nearly bled to expiry. I gave him a call and he invited up to his hometown of Jacksonville, N Carolina. He was in extreme pain and feeling very guilty for having left his men behind and was trying to integrate himself back into a community that really had no understanding of what he had just been through. He was also trying to learn how to rejoin his wife Ashley. I substantially lived with the 2 of them in this small-scale town.

He would introduce me to his friends and family saying, "This guy was over there with me", and that allowed me to be accepted into this very rural Baptist community. I started following his recovery, and the story evolved from existence primarily about this military machine offensive to existence one about coming home from state of war and how difficult that is. I realized that despite the feel of state of war, what happens on the battleground can be less hard than the transition to coming back home.

Filmmaker: How did you discover your way to war photography? You studied business and economics in school.

Dennis: That's right, I studied applied economics and I did consulting for modest and medium sized enterprises. I'1000 primarily interested in development and developing economies. I had always been securely moved by images from Vietnam, from Bosnia, from Rwanda, all because of the incredible work of bully photojournalists. During Iraq and Afghanistan, I felt that I couldn't only stay indifferent, that I had to effort to contribute and prove what was happening. And so I did make a very abrupt switch and started building a portfolio. I started in China. I moved to Beijing and started stringing for the Associated Printing. That's where I really learned the fundamentals of photojournalism and storytelling.

Filmmaker: Was information technology difficult to build trust betwixt yous and the soldiers from Echo Company?

Dennis: There's always some distrust betwixt the military and journalists, but once you bear witness that y'all can keep up, that y'all are non putting them at whatsoever additional risk and that you lot are willing to go through the same things that they are, they learn to trust you. And you trust them as you become through some difficult experiences. I think it was because I spent that fourth dimension in very traumatic circumstances with Sargent Harris in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan that he allow me into his life dorsum in N Carolina. I didn't know his married woman Ashley nearly too. It took quite a long time to go her used to me. One thing I learned from beingness a photographer is how to remain as invisible equally possible. I tried to blend in and let their lives unfold as naturally, with as much honest and truth as possible.

Filmmaker: The movie is incredibly dynamic and smooth visually for something that was filmed in active combat zones. How were you able to have such a sense of control over the artful aspects of the film while existence as imperiled as y'all certainly were during much of the shooting?

Dennis: I shot the entire film on a unmarried camera, the Canon 5D Marker 2. It'south a stills camera that has the additional function of shooting very high quality video. I could bring the aesthetics of photography and the ideals of journalism — of simply existence an observer — and combine them with the narrative one finds within documentary film to create a powerful, immersive feel. I had to build a customized rig to compensate for the downsides of using such a pocket-size camera and to operate in such hard war zones. I used a custom sound system with a shotgun mic and a wireless mic mounted to a custom mountain, which was then mounted onto a steadicam-like device so that I could be running. The marines could be running and yet I could notwithstanding get these cinematic tracking shots that aren't so much associated with documentary flick every bit they are narrative film. I was using advanced engineering to effort to bring the state of war closer to dwelling.

Filmmaker: The editing is also one of the more visceral aspects of your approach to documenting the state of war. I'one thousand especially curious about the sequence towards the end, when yous're relating the circumstances and experience of Nathan'southward injury by intercutting footage in which you lot're lying in the grass, ducking beneath what nosotros assume is enemy fire while Nathan explains how he was wounded; it nigh seems to advise that we're inhabiting Nathan's POV subsequently he's been injured, which is a very subjective selection for a documentary.

Dennis: I worked very closely with [editor] Fiona Otway. At that place was over 100 hours of footage, and we viewed and reviewed all of that first. Then we sabbatum down and spent a lot of time discussing our ain notions of war, the simulated, mystical, glorified view of war that I recollect dominates the civilization. I think its extremely prevalent and sort of ingrained into young men, that there'southward celebrity and adventure in state of war. The footage I had and the experiences I've had were cipher like that. Information technology'due south much more painful, there's much more suffering and it's much more brutal. So I wanted to be as honest equally I could and try to find the textile that fit a more realistic portrayal of what state of war was. Then the primary challenge in the editing was to show that the war isn't so much simply what happens on the battlefield, but also what happens when one tries to come dwelling house. It actually is one feel despite existence 2 very different types of struggles — one physical, fighting a ghost like enemy and 1 much more personal, psychological struggle back at habitation. The scene you referenced in item, where Nathan is telling Ashley about how he was shot while they are lying in bed, it was juxtaposed with footage that was shot well-nigh fifty feet from where Nathan had been shot that day. You can fifty-fifty hear Nathan shouting in some of that footage. That was shot by a marine, on a hand held camera and it was the same field, the same heaven, the same day that he is describing, and so it was trying to give an extremely subjective experience of what it might be similar to exist in this world of guts and blood and life and death and what information technology's similar to come home to a world that is a shopping mall and how difficult that transition is psychologically.

Filmmaker: What do you recall will get of Nathan Harris? The film seems to exist purposefully ambiguous about whether he'll exist able to cope with his injuries, only as well with the inability to be a soldier anymore and the emotional duress that comes with that for someone whose identity has largely been synthetic around his ability to kill.

Dennis: He's dorsum in North Carolina as an active duty marine in the wounded warriors battalion at Campsite Lejune. He'south yet undergoing physical therapy and psychological counseling. He does realize that he'due south never going to over again be the infantry grunt that he would very much similar to be. I think he is struggling with his identity and what information technology means to be a warrior who no longer has the purpose or the mission that he once did. What will his role in society volition be now that he can't be that infantry grunt? I retrieve he volition retire from the armed services. Whether he'll find something that works for him I don't know, but he's still very much with Ashley, and I retrieve they will stay together. They've been through so much, and she's ever been there for him, I remember. They are best friends, and they rely on each other. He'southward very lucky to accept that. In that location are so many other men who return home from state of war and don't have that kind of support arrangement or that back up organisation crumbles when they need it the about.

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Source: https://filmmakermagazine.com/31816-danfung-dennis-hell-and-back-again/

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