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Songs of War: Music as a Weapon

75 %|Feb 25, 2010|Documentary

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.

Featured Crew

Tristan Chytroschek
Director
Norik Stepanjan
Editor
Ole Förster
Sound Engineer
Susanne Mertens
Commissioning Editor
Karl-Heinz Satzger
Editor
George Parashakis
Sound Engineer
Knut Sodemann
Camera Operator
Max Kielhauser
Sound Engineer

Cast

actor
Thomas Keenan
Human Rights Project, Bard College, New York
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Chris Arendt
Former Guard, Guantanamo Bay
actor
Herb Friedman
Psychological Operations Expert, US Army
actor
Mike Ritz
Former Interrogator, US Army
actor
Nathalie Gosselin
Music Psychologist, Université de Montréal
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Moazzam Begg
Former Detainee, Guantanamo Bay And Bagram
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Morag Josephine Grant
Musicologist, University Of Göttingen
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Mike Luce
Drowning Pool
actor
C.J. Pierce
Drowning Pool
actor
Vahan Simidian II
CEO, HPV Technologies