Songs of War: Music as a Weapon
25/02/2010
Music elates, touches the soul and bypasses reason. Music is magic. But precisely this magic can turn it into an insidious weapon for music and violence belong together. The brutal power of African war dances, the ferocity of Maori Hakas, the earth-shattering roar of US sound guns blasting Metallica at Taliban hideouts the principle is always the same: Aggressive sounds demoralise the enemy and whip the allies into a frenzy. In Songs of War, director Tristan Chytroschek explores the extraordinary harmony between music and violence. Sesame Street composer, Christopher Cerf, always wanted his music to be fun and entertaining. But then he learned that his songs had been used to torture prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He is stunned by this abuse of his work and wants to find out how this could happen.
Movie Information
Christopher Cerf
as Presenter
Thomas Keenan
as Human Rights Project, Bard College, New York
Chris Arendt
as Former Guard, Guantanamo Bay
Herb Friedman
as Psychological Operations Expert, US Army
Mike Ritz
as Former Interrogator, US Army
Nathalie Gosselin
as Music Psychologist, Université de Montréal
Moazzam Begg
as Former Detainee, Guantanamo Bay And Bagram
Morag Josephine Grant
as Musicologist, University Of Göttingen
Mike Luce
as Drowning Pool
C.J. Pierce
as Drowning Pool
Vahan Simidian II
as CEO, HPV Technologies
