‘I Know I’m Not Alone’ explores human costs of war
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
By Ben Cannon
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-A few years ago musician Michael Franti, frustrated by media coverage of the Iraq war that seemed to focus only on political and economic impacts, set out to make a documentary about the human costs of conflict.
The result of his effort, “I Know I’m Not Alone,” is a touching, ultimately hopeful film about humanity reaching across political and ethnic borders in search of the greatest commonality – namely, the desire for peace and prosperity.
The movie, filmed in 2005, takes Franti and a handful of friends first to Baghdad, where the musician encounters Iraqi civilians living amid constant danger in a war zone. Conditions were unimaginably oppressive and violent under Saddam Hussein – that much no one doubts – but there was at least a dependable supply of electricity and tap water, and the streets were the not precarious war zones rampant with bombing and kidnapping they became under Allied Forces occupation.
Granted, the film was shot a few years ago but, with the death toll of U.S. troops having just crossed the 4,000 mark, we know the ongoing volatility in Iraq and its weak government has not allowed the situation to improve much, if at all.
Escorted by friendly taxi guides far from the protected Green Zone through Baghdad neighborhoods, Franti, armed only with his guitar, encounters merchants, musicians, poets, activists and other common people both young and old alike.
In one segment of the film, members of an underground heavy metal rock band – men in their 20s – talk about living their entire lives during wartime and dream of the peace, stability and fresh air (Baghdad, with its many gas-burning generators, is an air-quality nightmare) enjoyed in America.
Visiting a local hospital, where medicines and adequate treatment are often scarce, the film meets a young boy about 7 or 8 years old. Lying shirtless in a hospital bed, both of his legs have been amputated, the result of some undisclosed symptom of war.
Later in the film, visiting the hardscrabble lives of Arab refugees in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, Franti explores a decades-old rift that has led to innumerable deaths of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
The film does maintain more or less a rather apolitical slant: it doesn’t blame groups, except perhaps the power-wielding minority. Franti gets individuals on both sides of the divide to admit that both Palestinians and Israelis have wronged one another in an ongoing cycle of violence. The musician does point out, though, that the Israelis continue to displace agrarian Palestinians from their homes – sometimes at a moment’s notice – to erect new Jewish settlements.
At a climactic moment in “I Know I’m Not Alone,” Franti convinces some young Palestinian men to approach an Israeli checkpoint. After a few tense moments, the two sides peacefully engage one another in dialogue, each acknowledging the desire to cohabitate peacefully in a world without fear of bullet or bomb.
Proceeds from the local screening will benefit the Middle East Children’s Alliance (
www.MecaForPeace.org), a charity endorsed in the film.
Jackson resident Jim Stanford, who helped bring the film here, said the organization was chosen for its apolitical methods and goals to improve the lives of children living in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.
“I Know I’m Not Alone” screens at 7 p.m. Monday at the Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10. Call 734-8956 for more.
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‘I Know I’m Not Alone’ explores human costs of war | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture
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