Veillées d'armes

original title:
Veillées d'armes
other titles:
Veillées d'armes - Histoire du journalisme en temps de guerre, The Troubles We've Seen - A History of Journalism in Wartime, (The Troubles We've Seen - Die Geschichte der Kriegsberichterstattung)
country / year of production:
France , Germany , Great Britain / 1994
original length:
224 min. , color
premiere:
CH: August 1994, Locarno Film Festival
genre:
Documentary
based on:
director:
Marcel Ophüls
film script:
Marcel Ophüls
producer:
Frédéric Bourboulon , Bertrand Tavernier
cinematographer:
Pierre Boffety , Pierre Milon
editor:
Sophie Brunet
composer:
cast (role):
more:
plot synopsis:
Director Ophuels travels to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo using the coverage of the Yugoslavian Civil War to ask some fundamental questions about the reporting on warlike conflicts.
His documentary circles around the ambivalence of this business: the one side the necessity to report what has happened, on the other side the increasing need of an "interesting" presentation of the conflict in a media society where news have become a product, a piecce of spectacular infotainment.
With repeated reference to the history of war reporting and its development during the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War and Vietnam war, Ophuels attempts to find out if cathatrophic images have the power to prevent war and misery.
keywords:
journalism , reporter , photo journalist , media
war:
Yugoslav Wars (1991-1999)
literature:
remarks:
Despite his serious topic Ophuels manages a difficult tightrope walk between morale and entertainment rarely seen in documentary films. He is never the remote observer, but handles what he sees and hears in an always subjective manner. The way in which he brings himself in, takes the genre to its limits. Ophuels knows that someone who critically questions the media, also must be willing to question his own proceeding.
availability: