When civil war broke out in Libya, Matthew VanDyke was at home in America.
Between 2007 and 2010, he’d made two motorcycle trips of North Africa and the Middle East, filming his adventures and, later, the US military in Afghanistan. He’d made friends in Libya, and now they were messaging him on Facebook, emailing him, asking why the West wasn’t doing anything to help.
VanDyke got on a plane to Libya that night.
He’s since been active as a revolutionary, activist filmmaker and media commentator. He’s also the subject of Point and Shoot, the latest documentary from Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front).
Point and Shoot is 90 minutes with an intelligent and empathetic man, one who’s fiercely passionate about dismantling authoritarian, oppressive institutions across the world – and is willing to go to whatever lengths to do so.
I spent 20 minutes talking with VanDyke, about working with Curry, about the often-conflicting roles of freedom fighter and filmmaker, and about his own film about rebels living and fighting in Syria, Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution.
You approached director Marshall Curry with the project. Why’d you make the first move, and why Marshall?
Well, when you make a film about your own military service, you should have a little distance for people to take it credibly, so I knew I had to team up with another director for this project. So I went and looked who’s been nominated for Academy Awards in the last couple of years, went down the list, and started contacting people. ... [Marshall] had a good track record. He’d been nominated for the Academy Award. He’d done fine films before.
In the press notes for the film, Marshall mentions that he only works with subjects who allow him full creative control. What was the nature of your working relationship with him over the course of making the film?
We did a day of interviews and a little bit of sound stuff after that. I made suggestions on footage and we had a back and forth where I would look at it, make suggestions, recommendations, question certain things. We’d have disputes, y’know, but we’d work it out. In the end I’d given him final creative control, so in the end there’s still some things out in the open that I disagree with, but that’s what I signed up for.
It was complicated. It’s difficult for two award-winning film-makers to collaborate in a way such as this, when one is also the subject. It’s just so personal – it took me so many years to film, my own investment in dollars and sacrifice going into it before I even brought Marshall into the project. Bringing along somebody else is difficult, but we got it done. And we did all right.
There’s a truckload of footage that you shot during your travels in Africa and Libya that Marshall and others working on the film had to sift through to pull together a narrative. What was that process?
Yeah. I made recommendations about certain things that I thought would be good for the film, certain elements of the story. Marshall would do an edit, send it back to me for review and we just had a back and forth about it. It wasn’t too complicated, really.
Is there anything that didn’t make it into the film that you wish had?
Sure. There’s certain things as far as fooage – stories from the road, things that happened in West Africa, more of what happened in Iraq. Very little of the project that’s called Warzone Bikers in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan made it in. In some ways it’s good, because I still have all these projects as separate films or possibly TV series or whatever, but there’s also things which could’ve been explained more clearly or differently and some other disagreements we had content-wise. It’s the nature of any collaboration, I suppose.
There’s a theme running through Point and Shoot about the camera as a mediator and constructor of personal image – this idea that the camera makes you perform what you want to be and who you want to craft yourself as. Did you decide to shoot your travels to build a new image? If so, what image?
No, I wasn’t trying to craft a new image. I was trying to make an Alby Mangels-style adventure film. Over time, I wanted to keep it honest. It was always a struggle, really, to make sure that I wasn’t performing, to make sure that I was filming what was honest and not feeling like an actor. I would know when I was acting because I’m a terrible actor. But yeah, it was a bit of a struggle because I really believe in keeping things authentic.
I set a high bar for myself morally, ethically – in life in general, and filmmaking. I believe in documenting truth, so there’s plenty of things I filmed that were embarrassing and that I would not want seen. Some of that made it into the film. Fortunately, a lot didn’t. But it's always difficult to film one’s self. I think, fortunately, before I got to Libya I’d a few years’ experience doing it and, of course, this time I really had to pay attention and make sure I was keeping everything authentic, because one of the things I pride myself on is knowing how to do that having spent so many years filming my own life.
It’s clear in the film that you became increasingly less comfortable with the camera as you took on the role of freedom fighter in Libya. Why was that?
If they’re not shooting with a weapon, they’re shooting with a camera
I was there as a fighter, not a filmmaker, so having the camera at times felt like it had the potential to become a distraction. It’s something that – I really, at times, wanted to throw away the camera. A lot of times, the filming I was doing, I’d just set the camera up on an ammo box while doing something, or I’d hand the camera to someone who wasn’t shooting when I was shooting, or I’d film people when they were shooting if I wasn't, at that moment, fighting. So it was always secondary, it was never something that took precedence over the gun ...
At times, I just felt like tossing the camera, because it was sort of another thing to be aware of. In addition to all the other responsibilities you have during a war, you have to worry about the camera.
Some of the Libyans I knew insisted I keep filming to document what we doing at the same time as we were fighting. So I kept doing it and many of the other fighters in Libya did it as well. You can see in the film. Almost everybody has a cellphone camera out during battles. If they’re not shooting with a weapon, they’re shooting with a camera a lot of the time. It’s probably the most documented war in history up to that point.
Do you feel that there’s tension between the roles of filmmaker and freedom fighter in the warzone? Is there a distinction in terms of the values that are ascribed to those different roles?
Well, there is, but there’s different types of filmmakers. In my position ... I’m really a revolutionary and the filmmaking, to me, is another tool in the toolbox – another means of war, another weapon of war. It, at times, could be the camera – usually it’s not, but on certain special occasions it can be. But then there’s also certain types of filmmakers who are going over there to do straight documentaries, just documenting. There’s also journalists, which are a whole other category, who are supposed to remain objective.
So there’s some distinction. It depends. I’m very clear where I stand on these things and very clear on what I do. And, to me, with my Syria film [Not Anymore], yeah, it’s war by other means.
That idea that war needs to be documented, as well as simply fought, crops up again in Not Anymore [VanDyke’s recently-completed film about Syria, which will be screening before Point and Shoot at the NZIFF]. Do you feel that you bring something different to these zones as a filmmaker who is also an outsider – a white American – that local filmmakers don’t?
Well, there is. That’s why I decided that I was sort of in a unique position to make a film like that. Having fought in Libya as a Westerner, I had a sort of media presence that would give me a louder microphone to draw attention to what’s happening in Syria than perhaps a Syrian filmmaker. That’s just the reality of the situation. Here in the West, they normally don’t care about international stories. When they hear that an American fought in one of these wars and that guy made a film about another war, they at least give it more of a chance. They might tune in because it’s a hook for them. It’s sort of a candy coating on a bitter pill of an international subject they might otherwise not want to swallow, but at least they’ll give it a try, perhaps, because of the angle that I brought to it. That’s just the reality – it’s not a good reality, but that’s just the reality of the situation.
So that’s why I felt like I really had to make this film, because of that division. And I was on CNN talking about the film before I’d even left to go to Syria to make it, so I knew that there was already media interest in that I’d made a Syria film before I even made it, and that I would be able to use that media presence to draw attention to conflict and to help achieve things with the film that would otherwise not be possible if somebody else had made the film.
When I view something in the media, when I’m on the programme – like right now, when I’m talking about Syria – my goal is to use the position, my soapbox and my megaphone to advocate for the cause that I believe in and the people fighting for that cause in Syria. The film [Not Anymore] has absolutely gotten more media exposure because of what I did in Libya. ... So it’s given me an ability to advocate for that cause and the people behind that cause, and that’s really why I do this.
Do you feel like, in ‘filmmaker-advocate’, you’ve finally found the authentic role and identity you were searching for when you first went travelling?
I can’t complain about finding something worth believing and worth fighting for
Well, when I set off to make the motorcycle film, I never imagined that four years later I’d be fighting in an African civil war and being a revolutionary. I couldn’t have predicted the course of my life but now I absolutely feel like I’m doing what I'm meant to do and what I believe in. It’s difficult, it’s a struggle, but I’m fully committed to it, and it’s the purpose that I’ve found in life. I can’t complain about finding something worth believing and worth fighting for.
As far as the filmmaking aspect, that’s really just one part of what I do. My role as a revolutionary by whatever means are called for, that’s what I do and that’s what I’ll continue to do until there’s no authoritarian regimes left on this planet.
You’re still heavily involved in revolutionary causes and freedom initiatives, as well as documenting and commenting on conflicts in the Middle East, consistently providing that mouthpiece for the people in these warzones. What initiatives are you specifically working on right now?
I was working for quite a while on establishing a media centre to be run by Syrian journalists. That project’s taken quite a while and now I’m most likely going to not pursue it anymore due to things that are happening on the ground in the revolution. The revolution’s in a very difficult state right now. There’s things that I need to work on that are more urgent. The purpose of that project was more long-term, thinking about what the future of a free Syria would look like. Now, the dream of a free Syria is in serious jeopardy.
So I’m sort of pivoting into doing other work, more behind the scenes, things that I won’t be talking about publicly. I’m also doing media appearances, analysis, advocacy for Syria, still getting the film out, and various other things.
What do you have to say to young Westerners who look at what’s going on in the Middle East and in Africa, and are challenged by what's going on there, and want to do something but are not exactly sure what?
People who want to do something can go to rallies, put pressure on political leaders, give money to causes for humanitarian relief in Syria. There are various things people can do. Unfortunately, there are also limited things people can do. I mean, the conflict, really, at this point, is in the hands of world governance – whether they choose to help or not – and the people on the ground, fighting. The important thing is to not just change the channel and signal to the media that you’re not interested in the story, because the media does help keep some pressure on the political front, to put some urgency on a solution.
Point and Shoot is screening at the New Zealand International Fim Festival.
This content is brought to you with funding assistance from New Zealand On Air.
