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Voices in Wartime

2005 · Terry George · Terry George | A. Kitman Ho · 1 hr 14 min

VOICES IN WARTIME is a feature-length documentary that sharply etches the experience of war through powerful images and the words of poets - unknown and world-famous. Soldiers, journalists, historians and experts on combat interviewed in VOICES IN WARTIME add diverse perspectives on war's effects on soldiers, civilians and society. In VOICES IN WARTIME, poets around the world, from the United States and Colombia, to Britain and Nigeria, to Iraq and India, share their views and experiences of war that extend beyond national borders and into the depth of the human soul. The film also brings to life how poetry and war have been intertwined since the beginning of recorded history - from ancient Babylonia and the fields of Troy - to the great conflicts of the 20th century and the current war in Iraq. The stirring words of poets of the past - Homer, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman and Shoda Shinoe from Hiroshima are combined with more recent voices: a Vietnam vet, poets in Baghdad, a poet whose family experienced the devastating war in Biafra. The poetry moves us to the emotion of war explained to us by soldiers, journalists and a doctor who have experienced the effects of combat first hand. The poetry illuminates the reality. And the documentary reality helps us to understand the poetry. Together they sear the experience, emotions and sacrifices of war into our hearts and minds. VOICES IN WARTIME gives the gut-wrenching experience of war a fresh perspective. It steps away to look at all wars - not just the conflicts currently in the news. The terrible beauty of the poetry is our guide, distilling the grim realities and divers emotions of war. History and literature have shown us that in times of war poets can lead us to greater truths and that the power of poetry can help us understand the trauma, violence and death caused by armed conflict. VOICES IN WARTIME uses the words of Wilfred Owen, considered by many to be the greatest poet of World War I, as a guide: "Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is the pity...All a poet can do today is warn. That is why Poets must be truthful."