Combat Obscura doesn't … Photo: Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories. Filming it, okay. In this devastating film, Lagoze assembles his own footage and that of his fellow combat cameramen into a never-before-seen look at the daily life of Marines from the ultimate insider's point of view Later a group of men are held under house arrest for hours because they are suspected Taliban members; it's discovered that they were all innocent. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an ambiguous war from an unvarnished perspective. A conflict that’s never going to end?” And they’re just caught in the middle. We were in the Sangin-Kajacki area of Afghanistan in 2011. And we didn’t know it at the time, because they don’t really tell you anything when you’re going to these places, but there’s a dam in Kajacki. The Marine hands one of the boys a chocolate bar, but it does not feel like a kindness. I don’t want people just to look at the soldiers and Marines as hapless victims that were sent out there, and it was just the big politicians that are responsible. Where’s the fucking Taliban?” he screams in their faces. They were mainly looking for guys bringing drugs back, bringing weapons like AK-47s that they had found from dead Taliban. Was there resistance to it? Leaning in to the style its patchwork of source material requires, “Combat Obscura,” is an eye-opening dispatch from a conflict mired in confusion. English (CC) Close. Just out of high school, at the age of 18, Miles Lagoze enlisted in the Marine Corps. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the **Dallas International Film Festival. Theatrical Limited (11) COMPLETED Opened 03/15/2019 Key Dates. ** *"...Lagoze detonates any lingering illusions of military heroism." Oscilloscope Laboratories is an independent film company and distributor founded by Adam Yauch and former TH!NKFilm executive David Fenkel. I talked to his mom. Joining is simple and doesn’t need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. On FILM COMMENT. On WASHINGTON POST More. Combat Obscura Miles Lagoze . But there are civilians there that are like, “What are we going to do? And I was like, “I want to get this released somehow, but I don’t want to deal with the Marine Corps itself, because I know that they would just flip out.” So he told me about the review process at the Pentagon. COMBAT OBSCURA is a groundbreaking look at daily life in a war zone as told by the Marines themselves. (Oscilloscope Laboratories) This article is more than 1 year old. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an ambiguous war from an unvarnished perspective. I think I was just kind of directionless. Combat Obscura (2019) 70min Documentary. Just being like, “You know what, I’m not even going to film this. Once I had them in my corner, I think just their presence had an effect on the Marine Corps. In Combat Obscura, a ... a Marine Corps cameraman shows the flippant cynicism of combat in ways the military would rather we not think about. COMBAT OBSCURA is a groundbreaking look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the soldiers themselves. Combat Obscura Miles Lagoze . Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. Four title cards at the beginning of the film, intercut with footage of Marines blowing up the “wrong” building and joking around in a tent, set the officially unofficial tone of what is to come in the following hour: The views expressed by the individuals filmed in this documentary are solely their own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. Yeah, definitely. We had to clear a route there to fix the dam. Add to Cart Adding Added to Cart. Combat Obscura Dir. HoloLens PC Mobile device Xbox 360 ... Oscilloscope Laboratories . The personal aspects of the film where you can hear me, or where I’m asking questions, or where I’m filming in a certain way — we left that stuff in the film because of my responsibility and the role that I played and the guilt that I feel about it. Here’s the first trailer for Chiller Films’ Camera Obscura, in theaters on June 9th and on VOD and Digital HD on June 13th. On the one hand, you went there and you made it out alive, and it’s such a transformative experience at such a young age that it’s hard to disconnect from the emotional experience you had there and the friends that you lost, and the buddies who left body parts there. Right now, they’ve publicly stated that they’re not pursuing legal action. A lot of the guys in the film had been on multiple deployments, and they were getting out of the military. Home / Combat Obscura Poster. “Combat Obscura,” which was released March 15 with Oscilloscope Laboratories, is almost entirely comprised of footage Lagoze and another combat cameraperson, Justin Loya, … An unvarnished perspective of the intensity and paradoxes of war shot by Marine Corps videographer Miles Lagoze. Dir. I felt guilty for a long time for just filming it. (Oscilloscope Laboratories) 'Combat Obscura': The Raw Reality Of A War Zone, As Filmed By Marines Mar 20, 2019 at 8:00 am By. 100%. Released year. A lot of people think the military’s just these patriotic kids — guys that just want to serve their country. courteys of Oscilloscope Laboratories On Dec. 16 the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts … 2018 Close. Our tax money funded the war. I really want to unsettle people and put them in that moment. A perpetual standoff? Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the **Dallas International Film Festival. Kaufe Combat Obscura zum günstigsten Preis auf iTunes oder Amazon. 03/01/2018 - True/False Film Festival (USA) 05/04/2018 - … It’s totally absurd. Well, people always want that. We're distributing films to raise money to complete work on a time machine. 883 global ratings. Page 35 Trigger Happy in fact, because the owner of any patent on oscilloscope tennis would have been the United States government. View cart or continue shopping. Synopsis: Created out of war footage taken by combat camera for the Marine Corps. That scene cuts to a group of soldiers as they discover they accidentally shot and killed a shopkeeper. Close. People don’t need to see this.”. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it? That makes me think of a narrative choice that you made, which was not to do any kind of “Where are they now?” interviews, and not have voiceovers. Combat Obscura is directed by American filmmaker Miles Lagoze, making his directional debut. And oh man, they’re going to be so fucked up when they come back. What About the Teller He Held Up? I was a huge movie buff when I was a kid, and I saw “Full Metal Jacket” a bunch of times, and I was like, “Oh, you can just join the Marine Corps, they’ll give you a camera, and you just film for the military.'”. But most frightening of all is what’s happening behind the camera. ML. “Combat Obscura,” which was released March 15 with Oscilloscope Laboratories, is almost entirely comprised of footage Lagoze and another combat cameraperson, Justin Loya, … A scene from Combat Obscura (Oscilloscope Laboratories) Miles Lagoze served in Afghanistan as his unit’s official videographer from 2011 through 2012. He was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as his unit's official videographer, shooting and editing footage for the Corps' recruiting purposes and historical initiatives. That’s really all I can do. Theatrical Limited (11) COMPLETED Opened 03/15/2019 Key Dates. In a still from ''Combat Obscura,'' a film that uses footage shot in Afghanistan by a Marine, a U.S Marine appears to smoke marijuana out of a makeshift bong while deployed to … Miles Lagoze, U.S., Oscilloscope. In Combat Obscura you can hear quavering voices, uncertainty, brashness, cruelty, puffed-up confidence, anger, good intentions, exhaustion. Oscilloscope Films; Milestone Films; Tees; Hats; Coats; Sweatshirts; Theatrical Posters; Specialty Prints; Printables; Log in; Create account; Search. A young soldier shipping off to Afghanistan in 2019 may not have been alive to experience the events that precipitated U.S. presence there, but as the scenes unfold in Combat Obscura it's easy to understand just how similar their experience in Afghanistan would be to those who enlisted just after watching the World Trade Center fall in 2001. I wasn’t going to show it to the command, so they weren’t worried about that. I’ll tell you: A lot of [the Marines in the film] are in jail. She’s like a super Gold Star Mom, and so getting her permission was really important, but it’s always going to feel kind of exploitative. It basically powers the whole Helmand province with electricity. I reached out to a lot of different people along the way. The veterans that are actually honestly reflecting about it [have] a lot of conflicted feelings. Fenkel returned to the company on May 4, 2012 following Yauch's death. On REVERSE SHOT. Half a second later, a great column of smoke materializes in the distance, quickly doubling and then tripling in size. The Afghans themselves have lost more than we have by a landslide. Just, never mind, don’t worry about it” and walks off screen. Find Tickets. Get a constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics, memes, and videos just for you. His job was to shoot and edit footage for the United States Marines to use for recruitment and “historical initiatives.” © Reverse Shot, 2021. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an … When I started to get rid of that, I think that’s when it became more honest. “That’s the wrong building!” Another explosion sounds, and a fireball billows. And I always wanted to cover the war as a journalist. And it’s sort of a meditation on what it’s like to be a soldier, how absurd this war is — there wasn’t even a definition of what the outcome was going to be, what winning would even look like, or anything, really. Missile accounts increased slightly from $1.7 billion in FY19 to $2 billion. An unvarnished perspective of the intensity and paradoxes of war shot by Marine Corps videographer Miles Lagoze. Nearing the end of the film, a group of soldiers torture a chicken. His job in the Corps was what’s known as. Our job was to shoot and edit videos for the U.S. Marine Corps. The real deal. Director Miles Lagoze. Added to Cart! We didn’t pay attention. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. Combat camera is sort of like a PR tool for the military. In “Cherry,” the Bank Robber Is the Victim. And they got another legal firm involved called Jenner & Block that does a lot of pro bono stuff. We don’t have ads, so we depend on our members — 35,000 and counting — to help us hold the powerful to account. The New York governor had constructed a wall around himself that has been washed away by twin, reinforcing political currents. Subtitles. “Combat Obscura” (CR: Oscilloscope Laboratories) As the official videographer, Miles Lagoze (dubbed as “Combat Camera”) shot and edited footage for the Corps’ recruiting and to document its various historical initiatives. No scene in Combat Obscura will surprise the jaded audience we have become (except perhaps an early stereotype-crushing scene of a group of soldiers smoking hash on a rooftop). [The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University] kind of took me in pro bono. I think the military offered that easy, very direct path to another place. We're distributing films to raise money to complete work on a time machine. When I first set out to make the film, I did interviews with a lot of the guys that were in the film, in the present. His job was to shoot and edit footage for the United States Marines to use for recruitment and “historical initiatives.” According to the opening on-screen narration, he also shot much more. ** *"...Lagoze detonates any lingering illusions of military heroism." Combat Obscura Directed by Miles Lagoze Documentary 1h 10m. Because you’re being trained to kill people, and to not be thoughtful about those things, and to basically be excited to go to war. Oscilloscope was impressed with the look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone in documentary, Combat Obscura. But then the Marine Corps heard about it. I want people to question them. Did you have to get releases from everybody who appeared in the film? For those of us who have never been to war, it is easy to try and make it just about one thing. Available on iTunes Former combat videographer Miles Lagoze presents personal footage of US Marines in the Afghan war zone. It’s not like we were drafted. Documentary 2019 1 hr 10 min. Oscilloscope was impressed with the look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone in documentary, Combat Obscura. Combat Obscura (883) ... Oscilloscope Laboratories Purchase rights Stream instantly Details Format Prime Video (streaming online video) Devices Available to watch on supported devices. Primaries Matter: Why This Time Is Different for Andrew Cuomo, How Unions Defeated a Right-to-Work Bill in Deep-Red Montana. On FILM COMMENT. Montana is the first state where Republicans control the legislature and governorship that has failed to pass right-to-work laws. Or just maybe not recording it. I wanted to go to grad school and stuff. The guy chasing the kids with the pistol, he has a wife and kids, so I wanted to be like, “Are you going to want them to see this?” And he was like, “Yeah, man.” A lot of them are at a point where they want to be judged to a certain degree. In 2011, when I was there, we were supposed to be transitioning out of Afghanistan and handing it over to the Afghan army, the Afghan people. While there is no clear narrative arc, there is a slow escalation throughout the film that builds to show quite clearly how the confluence of time, boredom, prejudice, and weaponry create a situation with devastating consequences for all involved. So that tells you a lot about what goes into the rules of engagement in Afghanistan. He was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as his unit's official videographer, shooting and editing footage for the Corps' recruiting purposes and historical initiatives. The feature, which debuted … 'Combat Obscura' -Anhänger: Ein Dokumentarfilm aus der Kriegszeit, den die Marines nicht sehen wollen . It’s like there’s no problem to show that, but then when there’s a dead U.S. soldier, that’s off limits. (Oscilloscope Laboratories) 'Combat Obscura': The Raw Reality Of A War Zone, As Filmed By Marines Mar 20, 2019 at 8:00 am By. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an … Chinese philosopher Mozi recognized the phenomenon of light passing through a small hole into a darkened space to create an image of what's outside and called it a “locked treasure room.” Centuries later it’s believed that many of the Old Masters—da Vinci, Caravaggio, Vermeer—may have used the camera obscura to achieve realistic perspective in their paintings, an aid in the transmission of reality from one place to another. View cart or continue shopping. So the Marine Corps that I knew was extremely toxic. Moving Image Source was developed with generous and visionary support from the Hazen Polsky Foundation, in memory of Joseph H. Hazen. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the **Dallas International Film Festival. Editor's note: This hour contains audio and content that some listeners may find disturbing or offensive. People against the war will feel vindicated by the scenes of senseless violence, while those supporting it will focus on the scenes of Marines being shot at and killed and it will confirm their worldview accordingly. It’s hard to disconnect from that and go, “Our presence there was not just a waste, but my presence there probably could have made things worse.” I know a lot of vets who are unwilling to come to that because while they were out there, they truly felt that they were helping Afghans, because they were fighting against the Taliban. On WASHINGTON POST If you had been through that experience, you’d almost died filming a lot of the stuff, you’d want to keep it. And if so, how have you dealt with that? What was your aim in making this documentary? On NEWSWEEK. COMBAT OBSCURA is a groundbreaking look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the soldiers themselves. Using the footage that he and his fellow combat cameramen shot, Lagoze creates a kind of universal diary that is both highly intimate and non-specifically timeless, providing a window onto a world that few not donning a soldier's uniform can experience. They’re getting absolutely massacred by the Taliban. The footage in this film was shot by myself and other Marine Combat Cameramen in Afghanistan from 2011-2012. Combat Obscura In an early scene a soldier sits in a field with two local boys; he calls his Afghan translator over the walkie-talkie because he thinks the boy is telling him about a bomb. “Holy shit,” he says. Combat Obscura is a groundbreaking look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the Marines themselves. It’s not just the soldiers and the politicians. Other formats. On THE FILM STAGE. [Some] of them had gotten DUIs and gotten into trouble. About. It was a diary of our experience, and I wasn’t just going to throw that away. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an ambiguous war from an unvarnished perspective. Available on. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? There wasn’t really anything else that was illegal. In “Combat Obscura,” a new documentary set in Afghanistan, Marines don’t do what they normally do in American-made documentaries about war – they don’t echo narratives of God and country, kill bad guys, and win hearts and minds. We didn’t notice it. Another theme in the documentary is masculinity. Combat Obscura Poster $ 19.00 Regular price. The new film starring Tom Holland shows how our culture elevates the outlaws and sidelines their victims. And then no casualties. Never set one? DVD from $8.38. The final scene is a series of video messages soldiers are sending home for Christmas. A different angle on moving images—past, present, and future, By Emma Piper-Burket But it’s a lot of kids that are just on the fringe. Combat Obscura Related. Oscilloscope will release Lagoze's It was heavily occupied by the Taliban. The Afghan army has lost more soldiers the past two years than we did the entire time we’ve been there. I can find myself debating with someone whether we should stay in or leave Afghanistan. In a still from ''Combat Obscura,'' a film that uses footage shot in Afghanistan by a Marine, a U.S Marine appears to smoke marijuana out of a makeshift bong while deployed to Afghanistan in … That’s all I can hope for. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an … But the guys smoking weed, I wanted to make sure they didn’t have government jobs now, which would get them in trouble. At one point in the film, a Marine points his gun at children passing by on donkeys. That was a big one, not too much bloodshed. COMBAT OBSCURA is a groundbreaking look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the soldiers themselves. Combat Obscura. COMBAT OBSCURA is a groundbreaking look at daily life in a war zone as told by the Marines themselves. Miles Lagoze Self. Combat Obscura. Absolutely. And we’re still there. 5 star 66% 4 star 13% 3 star 12% 2 star 5% 1 star 4% How are ratings calculated? And you can see some of the guys in the film — they want to rap, they want to be on camera. And some of them don’t want us to leave, because if we leave, then they’re done. The earliest known mention of a camera obscura is from the 5th century B.C. And so—as if, eons ago in the primordial soup, one helix of a DNA molecule had winked into existence without the other, and therefore didn’t catch on—the videogame spark fizzled and went out. Synopsis: Created out of war footage taken by combat camera for the Marine Corps. The Intercept is a First Look Media Company. Reddit has thousands of vibrant communities with people that share your interests. And those that do, when they finally come to light, never seem quite as shocking as they should. We live in a time of image saturation; what atrocity escapes unrecorded? On REVERSE SHOT. But you have to think about it: While we were there, we created an almost uninhabitable environment for the Afghan civilians. Even boot camp. CheapCharts ist der beste Preis-Verfolger für digitale Medien. A scene from “Combat Obscura.” Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. This ingeniously edited documentary is composed solely of footage the Corps did not intend for you to see. This is going to haunt them forever — they’ve paid the ultimate sacrifice. The last soldier on camera starts and then says, “You know what? Label: OSCILLOSCOPE: Genre: Documentary: Language: English: Run Time: 70 mins Payment & … So you got permission from Levy’s mother to put that in the film. Do you feel guilt about participating in this war? 1 h 10 min Close. It’s sort of a metaphor for the whole war, I guess. And they were getting out in a few months, so some of them didn’t care at all and they wanted me to film. They are shot at, they joke and goof around, and towards the end of the film one of them is killed. Basically framed as The War Movie The Department of Defense Doesn’t Want You To See, the low-budget, high-energy documentary “Combat Obscura” tries to bring the viewer a better understanding of the conflict in Afghanistan through a ground-level view of one U.S. Marine Corps battalion. 4.3 out of 5 stars. The real deal. Upon discharging, Lagoze took all the footage he and his fellow cameramen shot, and he assembled the very documentary the Corps does not want you to see. Genres Documentary Foreign/Independent . The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. All the guys that were there go to see her every year on his birthday, and on the day that he died, too, so she has this cult of veterans. Soon we'll fold space and time. The Intercept talked to Lagoze about why he made the documentary, the legal process that preceded the film’s release, and his feelings about having taken part in the war. Shortly afterwards, Fenkel left the company in order to co-found A24 alongside Daniel Katz and John Hodges. An unvarnished perspective of the intensity and paradoxes of war shot by Marine Corps videographer Miles Lagoze. There was one guy who tried to bring a grenade on the plane back, which is obviously not a good idea for a lot of reasons. Combat Obscura Poster $ 19.00 Regular price. You mentioned your guilt about filming a fellow Marine being shot. But then showing that and not sanitizing it at all, and sort of emphasizing it almost —I think it is the longest sequence in the film — was definitely a tough decision. I talked to lawyers about that before anything. It’s supposed to be a poem. Combat Obscura - A Film by Miles Lagoze. Miles Lagoze, U.S., Oscilloscope The earliest known mention of a camera obscura is from the 5th century B.C. Documentary 2019 1 hr 10 min. At the age of 18, Miles Lagoze enlisted in the Marine Corps. Starring Miles Lagoze. ** *"...Lagoze detonates any lingering illusions of military heroism." As the war in Afghanistan stretches into its 18th year, it’s shocking to consider that multiple generations of soldiers have experienced the same sense of banality in the same war. More. Ultimately, you think of all the documentaries that have come out about Afghanistan or Iraq, they tend to show a lot of dead Iraqis, dead Taliban, dead Afghan women, children. Duration 1 h 10 min . Not U.S. troops. Some of them killed themselves. A man yells, in English, as the cloud grows past the top of the frame. More. It’s hard to imagine what fighting a war would look like if there wasn’t toxic masculinity involved in the training process. By repurposing the footage initially recorded to serve as promotional material for the Marine Corps, Lagoze subverts any idea of a monolithic truth.