The War Tapes

The War Tapes is a 2006 American war documentary film directed by Deborah Scranton. The film is the first documentary account of the 2003 invasion of Iraq to be produced by the soldiers themselves.[ 1] The film follows three New Hampshire Army National Guard soldiers before, during, and after their deployment to Iraq about a year after the invasion. Their unit was Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), which deployed from March 2004 to February 2005.[ 2]

The three soldiers with cameras featured in the film are SPC Michael Moriarty, SGT Stephen Pink, and SGT Zack Bazzi.[ 3] Two other soldiers, SGT Duncan Domey and SPC Brandon Wilkins, also filmed their entire deployments for the film. In all, 17 soldiers were given cameras and recorded 800 hours of tape in Iraq. Stateside interviews with the soldiers and their families made up an additional 200 hours of tape. The "cast" was narrowed to three soldiers for the final feature-length film.[ 4] The film won the prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2006.[ 5]