Our July Bell Award winner James Longley lives in Belltown when he's not shooting award-winning documentary films in dangerous locales. His film "Iraq in Fragments" was nominated for an Oscar this year, but lost out to Al Gore's heavily-hyped exploitation/horror film "An Inconvenient Truth."

"Iraq in Fragments" had its sound mixed at Belltown's Bad Animals Studios and was color-corrected at Modern Digital. Very convenient for James, who as a downtown resident sees no need to own a car. Actually, he told me he doesn't know how to drive. Take that, smug Seattle Prius owners!

photo by Rex

Longley came to Belltown in 2005 "almost by chance," but he's a local boy: his parents are marine biologists on San Juan Island, where he grew up.

He was happy to meet me at the 4th and Wall Uptown Espresso for an interview. Due to some technical difficulties I only recorded the first ten minutes of our hour-plus conversation: in the safe, cozy confines of a steamy Seattle coffee house on a mild rainy day, while interviewing a man who has managed to record audio (and Sundance-winning video) in far-flung, unstable war zones, my damn batteries run out! I blamed modern technology, as usual.

James and I did not discuss "Iraq in Fragments" much, but thanks to the miracle of modern technology you can find out lots more at iraqinfragments.com.

-Your first feature, "Gaza Strip" (2002), got a lot of traction.
I did it in my bedroom. There's no fancy sound mixing or color correction or anything on "Gaza."

-"Iraq" was shot with a prosumer HD cam?
No, just mini-dv, standard definition.

-We shouldn't get too film-geeky on people here but ... 24-frame progressive, right?
Yes, progressive scan: no interlaced nonsense. The thing about video, when things move there is this vibration between fields, no integral frame, just interlaced fields.

-You are the ultimate D.I.Y. filmmaker...
(Laughing) Other people worked on the film...

-But you didn't have a crew over in Iraq?
No, I worked with translators ... and did my own sound and whatnot. Back in the states, we had two other editors.

-Didn't you win a Stranger Genius Award? They're trying to be a bit ironic, as usual, but you are a genius in your own way. I mean, the reviews for "Iraq" are incredible, everybody loved it. All major media outlets gave it exposure.
There was a guy at the Village Voice, I forget his name, he didn't like it. He thought it was crap. There was a review in Variety during Sundance, and they said, "Well, this does not add anything journalistically to our perception of Iraq." But in general the reviews have been really good.

-According to Amazon, "Iraq in Fragments" will be available on DVD on July 10.
You know more than I do. Those decisions are out of my hands.

-Can you make a decent living as a documentary filmmaker? You're at a high level right now, with the Oscar nomination and stuff.
It's a choice of how much money you wanna make. People come to me with offers to do things and I'm turning them down a lot. That's my choice. I have another film I want to make, and I'm not sure if anyone's interested in it or not ... I'm supposed to go to Iran and do something there.

-Zow! There's been some personal risk involved in these last two films. You were right in there sticking yourself into some difficult situations.
That's true, although I don't think I took any more risks than your average war journalist. I saw people in Gaza and Iraq far more gutsy than I was. I was scared just watching them do certain things.

-Gaza. A sensitive topic, especially in the States.
It's a sensitive topic because there are a lot of emotions surrounding it, and not many facts, and everybody's afraid of talking about it, especially the corporate media.

-Do you think the media in Israel does a better job of covering that stuff than the U.S. press?
Israelis understand the situation far better than Americans because, obviously, they are living there, and their media report it better. I mean, if you read Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, the oldest newspaper in Israel, she lays it out. So everybody there, they may disagree or they may agree, but they know what she's talking about. Whereas here, very few people actually understand the situation, at least that's the impression I've been getting, although I think it's changing. Anybody that wants to find out about this stuff can do so more easily than they could, say, twenty years ago, thanks to indie media, the Internet and so on.

-No thanks to the mainstream media.
I think print media has done an okay job; there are still good journalists out in the field. Granted, the bureaus are being consolidated, fewer people are doing the job. Newspapers are always the place where the best journalism gets done, whereas television just sucks.

-Did "Gaza Strip" get any play on PBS?
Well, no. I gave it to PBS to look at and they said something to the effect of "We'd like to show it but we just can't, it's politically unviable for us." PBS is probably more nervous than your average broadcaster, I mean, PBS is a horrible institution when it comes to controversial subjects that are taking place right now. They're fine if you want to make a film about a dead president or baseball ... that's okay, but whenever you want to talk about something that people will disagree about, then they're just the worst, really spineless. I don't have a television but I see CNN sometimes at airports or in hotel rooms. Television has turned into pure entertainment, including the news. I really believe they are doing a huge disservice to the American people, not just CNN but all those broadcasters. They've let us down.

-The run-up to Bush's war is a good example.
It's a very good example. I mean, National Public Radio, you expect them at least to be critical thinkers and ask questions, but no. When I was in New York, NPR was championing the war as much as anybody. Just by bringing on air these people from the Heritage Foundation, or whatever right-wing think tank, every day, but not bringing on any critical voices, even though they were out there. There were those people who knew what they were talking about and knew the truth, but the powers that be chose not to have them on the air. I think the media is as guilty as the administration is in getting us into this Iraq mess. The independent media is growing so radically because everyone understands that the mainstream media is no longer of any value, it's dropped the ball. Take, for example, Somalia. The United States is bombing Somalia, and we've overthrown the government, and how many people in the United States knows anything about it? Nobody. And whether you agree or disagree, very few people have an opinion about it because few are aware that it's taking place.

-Interview by Alex

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The publishers of The Belltown Messenger, inspired by longtime Belltowner Carole Jordan, are proud to announce the formation of a new monthly award for honoring outstanding members of our community: the Belltown Exceptional Local Luminary - or BELL - awards.

Every month we will profile an exceptional local luminary and designate that worthy our BELL winner for that month. At the end of each year we'll stage a presentation event and party, the BELL Awards Gala, during which we will elect a Belltowner of the Year from amongst our monthly winners.

Our intent is to recognize and celebrate the talented, compassionate, civic-minded people who make Belltown such a great neighborhood.

Nominations need not be limited to residents of Belltown: we are looking to honor those who have acted in ways that benefit our neighborhood. Businesspeople, civic activists, philanthropists, artists, you name it. Aside from the profile in The Messenger, each monthly winner will receive a framable certificate of merit, nice gifts from our sponsors, and a one-year voting membership on our board.

Needless to say, nominees cannot be employees or relatives of employees (or contributors) of the Belltown Messenger or of the founding board.

We need your nominations for our Belltown Exceptional Local Luminary for August: please send them to bellawards@belltownmessenger.com, or to our "virtual office" care of P.O. Box 61370, Seattle, WA 98141.