Documentary sheds new light on many frightening aspects of U.S. drone program
NATIONAL BIRD (Sonia Kennebeck, 2016)
Saturday, April 16, Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 4, 6:15
Sunday, April 17, Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-6, 3:15
Thursday, April 21, Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-9, 7:30
Friday, April 22, Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 8, 5:30
itvs.org/films/national-bird
tribecafilm.com
On May 23, 2013, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in which he discussed America’s controversial drone program, saying, “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set.” Sonia Kennebeck’s shattering documentary, National Bird, strongly disputes that claim and adds more accusations as three former military personnel talk about what was really going on behind the scenes. “It’s a secret program, and what that means is that I just can’t go shouting off the hilltops, telling the public what it is,” says Lisa, a former technical sergeant on the drone surveillance system. (The documentary does not use the three main subjects’ last names.) “What I can tell you is that to me, one person who worked within this massive thing, it’s frightening.” Heather, a former drone imagery analyst, has become a massage therapist to deal with the effects of PTSD and anxiety and sleep disorders. “In learning to heal other people, maybe I could heal myself as well,” she says as she tries to come to terms with the many Afghani men women, and children, both military targets and innocent civilians, who died from bombs she dropped from drones. “I can say the drone program is wrong because I don’t know how many people I’ve killed,” she adds. And Daniel, a former signals intelligence analyst and currently a private contractor, carefully explains, “There’s no doubt in my mind that if I said the wrong thing or gave away the wrong kind of information about what I was doing that I wouldn’t be safe from prosecution of any kind.” Kennebeck also speaks with General Stanley McChrystal, who apologized for a 2010 drone attack that killed twenty-three civilians; some of the survivors of that fatal attack; and lawyer Jesselyn Radack, the founder of the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program (WHISPeR) at ExposeFacts, who has represented Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers in addition to Heather, Daniel, and Lisa.
A former technical sergeant on the drone surveillance system heads to Afghanistan to meet victims of drone attacks in NATIONAL BIRD
In her first feature documentary, Kennebeck compares the drone program to video games, as Heather, Daniel, and Lisa, through re-creations and actual documents, reveal how they performed their jobs, resulting in untold deaths, without ever seeing action; Heather, in particular, opens up about how difficult it was to sit at a desk in the United States while dropping bombs in Afghanistan, never knowing whether the victims were the intended targets or how much collateral damage was inflicted. She doesn’t know where to turn because the program is top secret and classified, so she can’t even seek out psychiatric help; meanwhile, she points out that several former colleagues have committed suicide. Lisa is so distraught that she goes to Afghanistan to visit with victims of drone attacks. And Daniel grows more and more paranoid that the more he talks, the more his freedom will be in jeopardy. Kennebeck (Sex — Made in Germany) also includes dramatic overhead drone shots of American communities, showing the terrifying prospect that drone attacks in the United States might not be far off as unmanned warfare spreads around the world. “Like previous advancements in military technology, combat drones have transformed warfare, outpacing the ability of legal and moral frameworks to adapt and address these developments,” Kennebeck explains in her director’s statement. “A broad, immersive, and thoroughly public discourse is critical to understanding the social cost of drone warfare.” Executive produced by Wim Wenders and Errol Morris, National Bird sheds new light on this controversial topic; it’s a chilling look at the next step in the continuing dehumanization of war, seen from multiple angles. “I thought I was going to be on the right side of history, and today I don’t believe I was,” Lisa says. National Bird is screening April 16, 17, 21, and 22 at the Tribeca Film Festival, with Kennebeck and Lisa participating in Q&As after all four shows, along with Radack on April 16 & 17.