DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS - Heavy Metal In Baghdad

TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY

This was a mixed documentary. There were many Interviews, Cutaways, Archive Footage and voice-overs, as well as a heavy usage of observational evidence and reconstructions.

THEMES

The documentary focused on War, Middle Eastern Culture, Loop Holes in Travel, corrupt policing and how Heavy Metal music helps the band Acrassicuada to gain hope of being able to move to the United States.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

The Narrative of this documentary was linear and interviews played a constant role in developing its structure. However, there were some elements of a docusoap in this documentary. There was an exposition, so its relation to docusoaps is only partial because of the small production team and eve's dropping on the lives of a few people in Baghdad, Iraq. VICE films, the Canadian company who created this documentary, featured their producer Eddy Moretti to play the role of an interviewer, presenter and narrator in this film. In the opening, Eddy Moretti establishes why they are in Baghdad. This was to meet Heavy Metal Band Acrassicuada, who they had been following for three years up to 2006, the year in which the documentary opens. The middle follows the band's lives in a war torn country as they move from Iraq to Syria. They search hard to try and find loop holes which allow them to travel to America. When they are in Syria, Eddy Moretti asks if they were considering splitting up but decide to carry on because of the fan's response at what was meant to be their final concert. The band moves on to Turkey, to which the documentary moves to a somewhat brief ending via the use of more subtitles. These subtitles explain what happened to Acrassicuada and their traveling fan 'Mike' up to the time that the documentary was published. These subtitles tell the audience that there is no definitive answer to the exposition because the band were not yet in america like they originally wanted intended to be. 

CAMERAWORK

Tripods were never used to steady the cameras and the majority of footage shot was handheld to avoid the creators of the documentary attracting too much attention for being journalists in the middle east. There were many close ups during the interviews. Some of these close up camera shots were 'undercover'. This is how the documentary used observational evidence to demonstrate the tension in some scenes between the Eddie Moretti, his team and the band against the Middle Eastern officials. When the band travel to Syria, there was an extreme close up on the band's translator, fan and friend called Mike. The camera looks up at Mike as he vents his frustration at how difficult it is to get into Europe because of being Iraqi. He sums up his frustrations on behalf of himself and the band. 

In Turkey, the cameraman records a TV screen when the band watches a rough cut of the start of the documentary. This is an extremely rare sight in any program to show the start of the same documentary at the end of the program. This however, can be judged as acceptable because of the struggles that the documentary has observed over the course of the past few years in the middle east. This footage was shown to the band because they wanted to be reminded of what life was like in Baghdad before they decided to travel elsewhere. They were filmed with medium shots showing the band being upset at their harsh memories returning to them.

MISE-EN-SCENE

The vast majority of the documentary footage was shot in the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. There were only a few shots taken at Frankfurt Airport 's waiting area before Eddie Moretti and his team flew to the Kurdistan area of Iraq. This was perhaps the least most relevant location of the documentary. It did have some relevance to the exposition. However, because the narrator already said they could get a one way flight from Frankfurt to Iraq, there was some relation. Other locations in this documentary included: the streets of Baghdad, Acrassicuada's  practice rooms, their concerts at the Al Fanar Hotel and a Syrian bar, inside moving cars, an Iraqi Restaurant, a Syrian recording studio, the band's bedrooms in Syria and in Turkey.

SOUND

There is a dramtic sound of drums in the opening scene edited with shots of Moretti fitting himself with a bullet proof vest. It indicates to the audience that they could soon witness danger. Sometimes the Diegetic voice of the producer, Eddy Moretti can be heard asking questions to the band for interviews. Documentaries are often edited so that the questions cannot be heard by the audience. A lot of the interviews in 'Heavy Metal In Baghdad' can be judged as 'Casual' by the audience, but because of the location they were shot at and the size of the crew they could be exempt from this code.

All of the music heard in this documentary was part of the heavy metal genre. The music was played non-diagetically to the audience as a music bed (with Acrassicuada's own songs) and Diagetically at concerts (A metal cover of Europe's 'The Final Countdown' and Metallica's 'Fade to Black'). At the point of Fade to black being played, the noises of screaming fans in the Syrian bar can be heard because they are imagining that they are at a Metallica concert. 

EDITING

There were fast paced cuts between close ups and medium shots at the concerts of fans and the band. There was one man who had his face blurred out to protect his identity. He was worried about being killed for being in a western documentary and being in a location that they shouldn't be in. He worked as a translator whilst they were in Iraq for the documentary. Note that Mike also acted as a translator but chose not to have his face distorted. 

Transitions were not often used. However, there was a black fading transition out and in from the recording studio to the Syrian streets. This may be reminiscent of the Metallica song 'Fade to Black', who were a large influence on the band's material. 

ARCHIVE MATERIAL

There was archive footage of Acrassicuada's concerts and bombs being dropped onto buildings in Baghdad. There was an image of an MTV News magazine article entitled 'No War for Heavy Metal' which as Moretti explains in the narration, was how he discovered Acrassicuada. Some video footage of war vehicles on Iraqi roads were used as part of cutaways. There was also some photography of the fans with the band.

The documentary makers also used concert footage from 2002 during the regime of Saddam Hussein as re-constructional evidence to support the fact that they had to unwillingly perform a pro Saddam song.

GRAPHICS

All of the graphics other than the re-constructional maps were in black and white. This included 'VBS' titles and their website afterwards followed by the 'Vice Films' title at the beginning of the film. The name of the band members appear centre screen followed by the instrument they play just below it. The instrument name is still central. Sometimes, some of the English that people in the documentary spoke was muffled or the subjects were speaking in Arabic. There words were dubbed in English below in white subtitles. The re-constructional maps were animated and demonstrated how the production team entered the Kurdistan region of Iraq from Frankfurt and onwards to Baghdad International Airport.  

Two members of Acrassicuada talking in their interviews with white graphics.

The video below is part 1 of 9 of the award winning documentary 'Heavy Metal In Baghdad':