War

Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno made headlines with a 1977 journalistic coup when they became the first American television crew allowed back into Vietnam after the U.S. withdrawal and were given unprecedented access to the ruined countryside and its people. The resulting "up-close" study of Vietnam's grim postwar reality relies on the voices of the common people to tell their stories: a 14-year-old prostitute, war orphans, an American translator turned opium addict .

As Americans wait in anticipation to see how the dawn of a new Iraq will unfold, many questions about the war, and about life under Saddam, remain unanswered. Imagine being able to call up an old friend and ask those questions, directly, honestly, with no hesitation. This is what happened when DCTV and Chat the Planet brought together the youth of the critically acclaimed Bridge to Baghdad to speak again for the first time since the bombs fell.

Documentarian Jon Alpert accompanies Masuda Sultan, a 23-year-old Afghan-American woman, as she travels back to Kandahar, Afghanistan to see what has become of her country after 9/11. Masuda is delighted to see the yoke of the Taliban lifted, but horrified to find out what happened to her family. Seeking refuge from the American bombing, a large number of her family escaped to the small village of Chowkar-karez, 60 miles north of Kandahar. Then, on October 22, 2001, Chowkar-Karez was attacked by the American military. 41 civilians were killed. 19 of them were members of Masuda’s family.

Originally slated for broadcast on NBC news in 1991, Inside Iraq: No Place to Hide was yanked just three hours before airtime. Was this coverage, which revealed that the Gulf War was not as clean and easy as the US media presentation had implied, too hot for TV?

Traveling through Iraq, DCTV’s filmmakers were able to visit a number of Iraqi cities whose infrastructure had been entirely destroyed. Water, electricity, and medicine were in short supply. Doctors stood helpless as the wounded suffered and starving babies died in their mothers’ arms.