The War Tapes

THE WAR TAPES is the first movie filmed by soldiers themselves on the frontlines. Declining an offer to embed, Scranton came up with the innovative idea to ‘virtually embed’ giving soldiers themselves cameras and trained them as cinematographers. Scranton directed THE WAR TAPES using email and instant messaging with the Soldiers with Cameras as they filmed. Hailed by the New York Times as “raw, honest and moving … one of the formally most radical films of 2006” and described as “the first indispensable Iraq documentary.”

Shortlist, 2007, Best Documentary Feature Category, Academy Awards
Winner, 2006 BritDoc Film Festival, Best International Documentary
Winner, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary
Official Selection, 2006 IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam)
Official Selection, 2006 Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Official Selection, 2006 Rome Film Festival

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

‘The War Tapes’ Provides a Soldier’s-Eye View of the Days Over There
A.O. Scott, New York Times

“The War Tapes, winner of the prize for best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, proceeds from a simple, powerful idea…”

Screen Player
Bryant Urstadt, Boston Globe Magazine

“Deborah Scranton gave soldiers video cameras and told them to shoot what they saw in Iraq. The resulting documentary, The War Tapes, is now blowing up back here at home.”

Cascading Inconvenient Truths
David Carr, New York Times Review

“…nothing in newspapers, on cable or even out there in the blogosphere matched the impact of a deft little turn in the middle of “The War Tapes,” a documentary about — and filmed by — a New Hampshire National Guard Unit stationed in Iraq that opened in theaters two weeks ago.”

Available on iTunes, Amazon Video