One year after 9/11, an American journalist travels to Afghanistan in an effort to learn the truth about the search for Osama bin Laden. Thats the premise of Christian Johnstons film September Tapes. But if you watch the film and then read about it you will find thats its a bit of the Blair Osama Project. The American journalist, Don Larson, is actually an actor named George Calil. Even if the film isnt all completely real it raises a lot of questions about the US involvement in the Middle East.
Check out the website for September Tapes
Daniel Robert Epstein: What made you decide to do a film like this?
Christian Johnston: That definitely seems to be the question that everyone wants the answer to. I was really curious about Afghanistan. Ive traveled to almost 30 countries around the world and a few were war torn areas so I was curious how much of the information coming from these regions is true and authentic. After September 11th I and probably a lot of Americans were probably wondering what was going on over there and what does Al Qaeda want. I think after a few weeks went by and we didnt know if we were going to catch Bin Laden and we heard the stories of bounty hunters on the trail it seemed like a pretty compelling way for us to get in there. Also it was a chance for us as independent filmmakers to go in and dig around to see how much truth there is to be told. From the stories we had been told we envisioned that we might be able to get pretty deep on the trail for Bin Laden. A lot of it was the idea of taking the camera in clandestine fashion and capturing some moments.
DRE: Why did you have to do it in this documentary style?
CJ: We could have gone over there and done a documentary but our audience would be very limited. There was a few people I knew doing documentaries over there. The people I wanted the film to speak to were the same people that would only go see this if it was a Black Hawk Down or Apocalypse Now storyline. We wanted to blend both. To be able to get a documentary in the theaters and have it seen by people who wouldnt normally go see a documentary. The idea of a hybrid is something I wanted to do for a while. This was sort of the perfect way to blend a scripted fictional film based on Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and visceral in the moment violence that embedded journalists and war correspondents.
DRE: Who else did you bump into over there that was making documentaries?
CJ: I knew of two people that came in from Tajikistan. One was doing a health care documentary and the other was doing a documentary on landmines. They were traveling in health related convoys and not on the trail like we were.
DRE: How terrifying was it being over there?
CJ: Really terrifying especially the first few days because the day we landed the vice president was assassinated. We expected to come in and find US journalists and military but we didnt see hardly anyone. We only saw two Delta Force Rangers the whole time we were in Afghanistan. When we spoke to them they told us that our risk profile was extremely high and that we should get out on the next plane. We found out there was a bounty on westerners heads up to $40,000. It was more likely they would capitalize on that rather than the $25 million that was being offered because they didnt believe that the US would pay.
DRE: Has anyone confronted you in anger at festivals or screenings?
CJ: We had some people that didnt understand what we were doing or how we did it. The fact that we didnt get to explain to a lot of people what we did so I felt that was unfortunate. When we receive those kinds of comments its from people who dont know exactly how the film happened. Its interesting because we self financed this film and to get opinions from the Northern Alliance Forces and Taliban describing what their list of demands were, which I think most people dont know much about, we can have things in this film that even some of the United Nations people werent aware of. On the rare occasions that Ive been able to have conversations with people who were off put by the film Ive been able to help them come around to a different opinion because they realized how we risked our lives to uncover what was going on there. If anything the film allows them to question what they see.
DRE: How did you convince George Calil to go over there with you?
CJ: I think he had a lot of his own personal reasons for going in and to try to discover what was going on there. I think he wanted to exorcise some demons of his own.
DRE: What do you think of the comparisons to the Blair Witch project?
CJ: I think if we had a night vision close up shot of a womans face I think it would be appropo. I think that even got thrown around by some friends of mine that made Open Water. Any film that gets shot on digital with some elements of realism seems to get that comparison. Had Blair Witch dealt with actual physical evidence of a real witch or a real threat I think the comparison would be a lot more legitimate.
DRE: Do you feel September Tapes has a point of view?
CJ: I think we didnt want the film to have an overbearing point of view. Whether the film leans more to the left or to the right wasnt the goal as much as trying to get real opinions and trying to get people on camera that had never gotten to speak before about what Americans had done. Certain tapes were held back by the government because the people speaking on them were under active investigation by the government. I think we took a stronger opinion by having our protagonist be an angry American with blinders on going into a conflict he didnt really understand.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the website for September Tapes
Daniel Robert Epstein: What made you decide to do a film like this?
Christian Johnston: That definitely seems to be the question that everyone wants the answer to. I was really curious about Afghanistan. Ive traveled to almost 30 countries around the world and a few were war torn areas so I was curious how much of the information coming from these regions is true and authentic. After September 11th I and probably a lot of Americans were probably wondering what was going on over there and what does Al Qaeda want. I think after a few weeks went by and we didnt know if we were going to catch Bin Laden and we heard the stories of bounty hunters on the trail it seemed like a pretty compelling way for us to get in there. Also it was a chance for us as independent filmmakers to go in and dig around to see how much truth there is to be told. From the stories we had been told we envisioned that we might be able to get pretty deep on the trail for Bin Laden. A lot of it was the idea of taking the camera in clandestine fashion and capturing some moments.
DRE: Why did you have to do it in this documentary style?
CJ: We could have gone over there and done a documentary but our audience would be very limited. There was a few people I knew doing documentaries over there. The people I wanted the film to speak to were the same people that would only go see this if it was a Black Hawk Down or Apocalypse Now storyline. We wanted to blend both. To be able to get a documentary in the theaters and have it seen by people who wouldnt normally go see a documentary. The idea of a hybrid is something I wanted to do for a while. This was sort of the perfect way to blend a scripted fictional film based on Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and visceral in the moment violence that embedded journalists and war correspondents.
DRE: Who else did you bump into over there that was making documentaries?
CJ: I knew of two people that came in from Tajikistan. One was doing a health care documentary and the other was doing a documentary on landmines. They were traveling in health related convoys and not on the trail like we were.
DRE: How terrifying was it being over there?
CJ: Really terrifying especially the first few days because the day we landed the vice president was assassinated. We expected to come in and find US journalists and military but we didnt see hardly anyone. We only saw two Delta Force Rangers the whole time we were in Afghanistan. When we spoke to them they told us that our risk profile was extremely high and that we should get out on the next plane. We found out there was a bounty on westerners heads up to $40,000. It was more likely they would capitalize on that rather than the $25 million that was being offered because they didnt believe that the US would pay.
DRE: Has anyone confronted you in anger at festivals or screenings?
CJ: We had some people that didnt understand what we were doing or how we did it. The fact that we didnt get to explain to a lot of people what we did so I felt that was unfortunate. When we receive those kinds of comments its from people who dont know exactly how the film happened. Its interesting because we self financed this film and to get opinions from the Northern Alliance Forces and Taliban describing what their list of demands were, which I think most people dont know much about, we can have things in this film that even some of the United Nations people werent aware of. On the rare occasions that Ive been able to have conversations with people who were off put by the film Ive been able to help them come around to a different opinion because they realized how we risked our lives to uncover what was going on there. If anything the film allows them to question what they see.
DRE: How did you convince George Calil to go over there with you?
CJ: I think he had a lot of his own personal reasons for going in and to try to discover what was going on there. I think he wanted to exorcise some demons of his own.
DRE: What do you think of the comparisons to the Blair Witch project?
CJ: I think if we had a night vision close up shot of a womans face I think it would be appropo. I think that even got thrown around by some friends of mine that made Open Water. Any film that gets shot on digital with some elements of realism seems to get that comparison. Had Blair Witch dealt with actual physical evidence of a real witch or a real threat I think the comparison would be a lot more legitimate.
DRE: Do you feel September Tapes has a point of view?
CJ: I think we didnt want the film to have an overbearing point of view. Whether the film leans more to the left or to the right wasnt the goal as much as trying to get real opinions and trying to get people on camera that had never gotten to speak before about what Americans had done. Certain tapes were held back by the government because the people speaking on them were under active investigation by the government. I think we took a stronger opinion by having our protagonist be an angry American with blinders on going into a conflict he didnt really understand.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
and how scary is this comment -
It’s interesting because we self financed this film and to get opinions from the Northern Alliance Forces and Taliban describing what their list of demands were, which I think most people don’t know much about, we can have things in this film that even some of the United Nations people weren’t aware of
it doesn't say much for military intelligence when they have to get their information from self-financed indie filmmakers