The War Tapes: Documenting the Iraq War with Digital Cameras

Not only do digital cameras allow ground soldiers to film the war as they live it, but they also give them access to self-representation. Interestingly, digital cameras have often replaced the war diary, permitting the soldiers to look back at the events of the day and to retrospectively discuss what they went through. Film director Deborah Scranton used the footage provided by a few soldiers whom she distributed digital cameras to fashion an original narrative of the Iraq war in The War Tapes (2006). Her film interweaves various types of footage, combining the soldiers’ authorial voice with her own. As editor and narrator, Scranton enhances the distance between life on the front and back in civilian society. Through a close examination of the produced film, this article aims to assess the impact of digital cameras on the representation of war in documentary filmmaking