{"id":997,"date":"2014-03-25T18:16:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T22:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevedorst.com\/blog\/?p=997"},"modified":"2016-03-16T09:19:03","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T13:19:03","slug":"shooting-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevedorst.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/03\/25\/shooting-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Shooting in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ABADE-1120\"<\/a>A month before I arrive for a 10-day film shoot in Afghanistan, a bloody Taliban attack on a \u201ccherished oasis<\/a>\u201d of a restaurant signals new aggression in the run up to April\u2019s Presidential elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is what\u2019s running through my head as I take my first steps on Afghan soil.<\/p>\n

I’m walking the gauntlet, a no-man\u2019s-land, since Kabul airport doesn\u2019t seem to permit cars anywhere near it (fewer bomb threats?). So under an intense sun, I push my cart stacked with film equipment for four city blocks to an awaiting armored SUV.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0024\"<\/a>
Kabul Airport, jetlagged, and trying to take it all in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I move into what people call a villa, but what\u2019s really a walled compound. Like a prison. It has 10 armed guards on duty at any one time\u2014a UK ex-special forces type and nine locals. When I go out, it\u2019s in an \u201carmored\u201d with an armed guard. We get security briefings every morning, don\u2019t leave the villa except to work, and return home before nightfall.<\/p>\n

My friend Joe, a USAID veteran, skypes me several times from the States\u2014most likely to give me a pep talk . But I don\u2019t answer. For some reason, I don\u2019t want any more context than what I have in front of my own two eyes. It’s verging on overwhelming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“[A]pproaching a checkpoint outside of Kabul, a soldier bangs violently on our window. We stop. My heart\u2019s pounding.”<\/h6>\n

My job is to make some short documentaries about a successful USDA<\/a> project, CBCMP<\/a>, that is improving how the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture functions. It\u2019s a capacity building project. In a country where more than 70% of the population derives some or all of their income from the agricultural sector, it\u2019s important work. If farmers are more successful, the thinking goes, there\u2019ll be less poverty, less opium, and perhaps a weaker Taliban.<\/p>\n

The first shoot day, I can barely open the SUV door it\u2019s so heavy (bullet-proof glass, armor). Kabul is crowded, dry as dirt, and framed by the most imposing snow-capped mountains I\u2019ve ever seen. Hardscrabble stone homes, etched into the mountainsides, snake to impossible heights\u2014overshadowing my memories of Rio\u2019s favelas (my blog post from Brazil<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I run all the creative\u2014directing, shooting, audio, and lights. I have a series of young men serve as my unit producers, ushering me around, asking questions in interviews, and making sure I don\u2019t commit any cultural gaffes (\u201cdon\u2019t look at any women,\u201d one says on day one). They are smart, dress in Western clothes, and I get along well with all of them, especially Najib Siawash.<\/p>\n

\"najib\"<\/a>
Najib is great to work with.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interviews are in English or Dari. I\u2019ve just conducted a bunch of Arabic interviews in Lebanon (Beirut Dispatch: 5 Things I Learned in Lebanon) <\/a>and will soon head off to Ethiopia where we\u2019ll do Amharic. I start reflecting on all the interesting languages I\u2019ve filmed recently: Meru in Kenya (Directing in Kenya . . .)<\/a>, Russian and Azeri in Azerbaijan, Tagalog in the Philippines, and lots of Spanish.<\/p>\n

I think about how I love the documentary process, how at its best it can be respectful and authentic. I think about how in the edit, I\u2019ll use people\u2019s voices rather than narration or dubbing, and how this makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t[Show thumbnails]<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/p>\n

After a few days, I\u2019m fed up with filming government workers in government buildings, so I insist (again) on a day filming some farmers. With the security situation, it takes an act of Congress to find common ground between the local Deputy Chief of Party (\u201clet\u2019s go to Jalalabad!\u201d) and the hardcore UK special forces guy (who prohibits travel anywhere).<\/p>\n

So the next day we set off for some farms on the outskirts of Kabul. Looking around on the drive, I never get over how men dominate every public space. It\u2019s like aliens abducted the women. In some commercial districts, we pass literally thousands upon thousands of men and boys, without seeing more than a handful of women.<\/p>\n

For the next week, I have a dozen conversations with both locals and expat aid workers about the absence of women in the public sphere. It\u2019s like I\u2019m obsessed the way I keep bringing it up, but I do a good job being sensitive and listening. I never can escape a deep conviction that half of the population is being shut out of jobs, opportunity, and personal liberty.<\/p>\n

So I film some women farmers, some of whom are wearing a blue full-body chador, or burqua. Afterwards, Najib takes my iPhone and starts snapping, including this odd video:<\/p>\n