Marty Callaghan’s splendid documentary Blood and Oil should be required viewing for anyone who wants to understand the history behind the current crisis in the Middle East. It follows the Ottoman Empire’s entry into World War I and shows how “The War To End All Wars” and Western political intrigue laid the foundation for the violence, revolts and military interventions that followed in this volatile geographic area. I was pleased when Callaghan agreed to the following in-depth e-mail interview about his enlightening film.      

QUESTION: What was your biggest challenge while making Blood and Oil?

CALLAGHAN: One of the biggest challenges I faced was finding enough archival film and photos to cover a two-hour program. Tons of material are available for fighting on the Western Front in France, but not so much when it comes to the Russians and Turks slugging it out in the Caucasus Mountains. Or Turkish troops battling the British along the Tigris River. So it took a lot of time -- about three years -- and effort to gather the visual material.

I researched archives in London, Berlin, Moscow, Bucharest and Sofia. Fortunately, the Turkish National Archives in Ankara had a large amount of material, especially photographs. I got some good film footage in Moscow and some other interesting material from the US National Archives. But the problem with our own archives is that the footage is on old U-matic videotape that is falling apart; the video machines are gradually breaking down as well. Each time I go to College Park, Maryland to transfer footage, it gets more difficult to find a video machine that works properly. You’d think the federal government would get wise and digitize all the film and make it available to the public via online video-stream technology. But we’re spending too much money in Iraq to make any available for the preservation of our national heritage. Imagine what $400 billion would have done to renovate and modernize our national archives!

Anyway, my efforts produced enough Russian and Turkish images, but I was still short on British material. And the British Imperial War Museum charges an arm and a leg for their film; I think the current rate is about $80 per second....I didn’t have the budget for that. Fortunately, my distributor -- Inecom Entertainment Company in Pittsburgh -- has a substantial collection of photographs from the World War One era. A large number of Inecom photos appear in Blood and Oil and really enhanced the final product.

QUESTION: What did you enjoy most about working on this project?

CALLAGHAN: The most enjoyable part of this whole experience was twofold: learning a great deal about a subject of which I knew very little, and meeting dozens of individuals in several countries whose expertise and kind assistance allowed me to produce a unique documentary. As far as I can tell, Blood and Oil is the first program released on DVD that deals exclusively with war and politics in the Middle East from 1914 to about 1922.

QUESTION: How did you select the three experts who commented throughout your documentary?

CALLAGHAN: Sometimes producers can’t get the interviews they want for a program. That’s happened to me a few times. But I got lucky this time around and got the three individuals I wanted the most. Dr. David Fromkin literally wrote the book on the Middle East during World War I and its aftermath: A Peace To End All Peace. That book should be required reading for all State Department officials dealing with countries from Greece to Yemen, to Iran. President Bush is always bragging about the books he’s reading. He should have read Fromkin’s book two or three times before cooking up his invasion of Iraq. Dr. Fromkin enjoys a most successful academic career, but he really should be in charge of Middle Eastern Affairs for the State Department.   The other two experts, Edward Erickson and David Woodward, were perfect for the program. While Fromkin lent his expertise mainly in the political realm, Erickson and Woodward lent their military expertise. Having just completed his book, Hell in the Holy Land, Dr. Woodward really illuminated the British experience in fighting a desert war. And Colonel Erickson provided key insights on the Ottoman/Turkish perspective. He has written the book Ordered To Die; it is the only English-language history of the Ottoman Army during World War One. I use the words “Ottoman” and “Turkish” interchangeably here. Modern Turkey is the remnant of the ancient Ottoman Empire, which stretched at one time from Romania to the Persian Gulf. At the start of World War One, about half the Ottoman population was Turkish, and the other half was made up of Arabs and various minorities. At any rate, I was quite pleased to get Erickson, Fromkin and Woodward for the program.

QUESTION:  What motivated you to become a documentary filmmaker?

CALLAGHAN: My love of history and film made documentary production a natural career for me. I started out in print journalism and photography, and spent some time in public affairs and marketing. This kind of background has really helped me out as a writer and producer.

QUESTION:  Are there any documentary filmmakers you admire?

CALLAGHAN: I always liked Pennebaker’s documentary about Bob Dylan and his 1965 tour, Don’t Look Back.  He seemed able to make himself invisible enough to capture some very dramatic and revealing moments. Tough thing to do when you’re around someone like Dylan, who is pretty cautious around media. But my favorite documentary filmmaker is Emile D’Antonio. He started out with a great film about the Joseph McCarthy hearings, called Point and Counterpointt. In the 1960s, he did two great films, one on the murder of JFK -- Rush to Judgment -- and another on the Vietnam War, The Year of the Pig. That film was nominated for an Academy Award.

D’Antonio was one smart fellow, and understood sooner than many of us that our government and our politicians lie to the U.S. public on a regular basis. McCarthy lied about Communist infiltration in the State Department and got away with it for about four years. The Warren Report lied to us about the Kennedy assassination: Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with that horrendous crime, and some key government officials knew it at the time. And the Vietnam War -- well, we’re repeating that mistake right now, aren’t we? Bush made up the “weapons of mass destruction” claim to get us into Iraq, and Lyndon Johnson made up the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” to get us into Vietnam. These are the kinds of decisions made by the military-industrial complex; our government really has little to do with it. But D’Antonio saw through the smoke and mirrors, and illuminated these critical issues with a glimpse at the truth. That takes a lot of guts and a lot of talent. And he did not use heavy editorial comment to make his point. Michael Moore has done some good work, but he really is too manipulative for his own good. He hits people with a hammer, driving home his point of view without any pause for reflection. D’Antonio had much more finesse.

QUESTION:  Have you received any response from educators who want to use Blood and Oil in their classes or from U.S. policy makers?

CALLAGHAN: It would be great to get a letter from Vice President Cheney, thanking me for the lessons he learned from Blood and Oil. But nothing even close to that has happened. One reviewer said that the program should be used by every high school in the country that has a political science department. And I know that “Video Librarian” gave it a good review and three out of four stars. In general, the program has gotten good reviews. A couple of folks out there have faulted it for having “too much information.” Or for too much detail on the military operations.

QUESTION: What is the most important thing you want people to know about you and your work?

CALLAGHAN: Blood and Oil is really an overview of a very complex subject. It tells you why World War One broke out in the Middle East, how it was fought and why the Ottoman Empire was defeated, the political intrigue and military occupations of Britain and France, and why those events are connected to our current situation in Iraq. Our troops are being killed in Baghdad today because of British and French foreign policy decisions made 90 years ago. That’s why the program is important. As far as I know, it is the first documentary produced in the U.S. that explains what happened in the Middle East from 1914 to about 1922. What bothers me about our government is that they continue to overlook the obvious when it comes to foreign affairs and military interventions. If Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld had seriously reviewed the history of Western armies in the Middle East, they might have thought twice about invading Iraq.

QUESTION: Are there any other comments you would like to add?

CALLAGHAN: Just three things I’d like to mention. First, my thanks to those great history professors who taught me at Valparaiso University -- they shared their valuable insights and gave me the professional tools for doing solid research. Second, my thanks to Columbia College Chicago for starting me on the road to film production; I only went there for one year, but I had some excellent instructors and learned enough to get my first job in production. And finally, my thanks to Inecom Entertainment Company in Pittsburgh. They understand the value of Blood and Oil and have delivered it to the world market.

(For more information about Blood and Oil visit the official website.)

Read Betty Jo’s review of Blood and Oil by clicking here.