Full Disclosure
/Dir. Brian Palmer, 2009, 57 min.
Journalist Brian Palmer followed young U.S. Marines on dozens of missions during three embeds in Iraq between 2004 and 2006. Back in the States, he continued to document the war and its human cost. Full Disclosure captures the consistent, sometimes benign, but often tragic miscommunication between U.S. troops and vulnerable Iraqi citizens. Amid the inexorable and destructive momentum of the occupation, the documentary explores the consequences of our inability to speak with and understand those whose country we occupy. It exposes the gap between what we think we’re doing in Iraq and what we’re actually doing. Iraq was the war five years ago when Palmer started Full Disclosure. Afghanistan was “the forgotten war.” The opposite may be true in 2010, but even as Americans turn toward “AfPak” and Yemen, the discord and damage in Iraq remain.