THUR, APRIL 10, 2008
Vol. 84 No.23
Arts & Entertainment Archive 2005-06 NO. 10 


Film exposes horrors of conflict in Iraq

Documentary shown as part of U.N. Week

 by Sandi Spino
Staff Writer
spinosan@shu.edu

The destruction of the U.N. building impacted hundreds.
The destruction of the U.N. building impacted hundreds.
When film director Margaret Loescher brought her documentary “Pulled from the Rubble” to Seton Hall last week, she shared a different perspective of the United Nations than what students had seen at other U.N. Week events.

The screening, sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and University Libraries, took place on Oct. 26 in the Nursing Amphitheatre.

“Pulled from the Rubble” gave an account of the August 2003 bombing of the U.N. in Baghdad. Loescher’s father was in a meeting with Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the United Nations in Iraq, when a truck loaded with explosives drove into the side of the building.

Gil Loescher had been on a humanitarian research trip with a colleague. He was the only survivor among those who were in the meeting.

Twenty-two people died in the attack and more than a hundred people were injured, including Gil, who lost both of his legs. The film chronicled his recovery through the use of private videos filmed by Margaret Loescher.

“It’s a very personal film,” Loescher said in her introduction.

When Gil Loescher’s legs were amputated less than 20 hours after the attack, his family was told he had only a 20 percent chance of recovery.

“Papa calls this his second life,” Loescher said in the film’s voiceover narration. “He says this is a beginning and not an end.”

The documentary included footage from the U.N. building on the day following the attack.

Blood and glass were strewn across the floors, and piles of papers were left on the desks beside empty chairs.

Students watched such intimate moments, as when Gil struggled up the stairs with the help of his family and dribbled a ball on the basketball court in his wheelchair for the first time since the attack.

Loescher read aloud the accounts of the rescue workers to her father, using other people’s words to help retell the story of that fateful day.

In a question-and-answer session following the film, Loescher was asked how she managed to go through such a painful experience, while recording it at the same time.

“Well I think that when you go through something like that, you relive it over and over again anyway,” she said.

She explained that lifting up the camera was like taking control of that process of reliving.

“It’s very difficult to know when to pick up a camera and when not to,” Loescher said.

She said that filming and taking pictures had always been a part of her life.

Loescher’s father has seen the film at festivals.

“He’s very proud of me for making it,” she said.

Loescher said her father finds it difficult to watch but said he is happy that others are seeing it.

“Pulled from the Rubble” was Loescher’s first feature- length documentary, and she said the subject matter has taught her a great deal, although she said it’s not a topic she will stick to.

“The main message for college students is that international issues such as war and humanitarianism are not issues that exist far away from you, even though Iraq is a distant place,” Loescher said. “If these things impact us, then we also have a role in creating them and controlling them.”

Junior Erica Salerno, a diplomacy student, was among those who watched Loescher’s film.

“It gave a face to and really humanized the pain and suffering of the things you see in the media,” Salerno said.

“Pulled from the Rubble” is currently touring universities around the country.




 
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