Congratulations again Michael Ware for ONLY THE DEAD winning the @sydfilmfest Australian documentary prize.

— transmission (@transmission) June 15, 2015

🏆 The @DocumentaryAust for Australian Documentary goes to ONLY THE DEAD, directed by Michael Ware! #sydfilmfest

— Sydney Film Festival (@sydfilmfest) June 14, 2015

A snippet from a Business column by Glen Norris:

IRAQ DOCO

QUEENSLAND’S courts, next Hollywood studios? Ex-journo of The Courier-Mail Michael Ware has made a splash with his new documentary Only The Dead, featuring at the Sydney Film Festival.

It’s about the Iraq War and Ware’s reporting from there, where he earned kudos for his work with Time and CNN.

What is little known is one of the early supporters of the film is Brisbane barrister Christopher Johnstone, a mate of Ware’s from university and rugby days. Johnstone and Ware along with Ware’s partner Justine Rosenthal, are involved with Penance Films, which was one of the production companies for the flick. And you thought all the courtroom drama was with LA Law.

Michael Ware & @hughriminton at the premiere of ONLY THE DEAD last night at @sydfilmfest .

— transmission (@transmission) June 11, 2015

Michael Ware and Justine Rosenthal saw a potent film within the camcorder footage
Ware captured during the Iraq War.
Picture: Renee Nowytarger Source: News Corp Australia

Michael Ware and Justine Rosenthal have seen too much of war.

Ware embedded himself for CNN and Time in the worst of the Middle East after 9/11, primarily covering the hunt for al-Qa’ida. And Rosenthal had a prime career in US foreign affairs and treasury before moving to editing at Time and Newsweek.

Michael Ware, in front of the Victory Arch in Baghdad, was almost beheaded. Picture: Yuri Kosyrev

THE terrifying moments of being snatched off an Iraqi street and threatened with beheading by al-Qaeda have been captured by an Australian documentary filmmaker.

Conflict journalist Michael Ware directed documentary Only the Dead, which premiered at Event Cinemas on George St last night as part of the Sydney Film Festival.

The movie, one of 10 competing for the Documentary Australia Foundation Award, follows the former CNN reporter as he builds contacts with al-Qaeda insurgents, particularly the terrorist group’s founder in Iraq — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Michael on the radio in Sydney, listen to the show here.

Michael is quoted in an article about Westerners fighting for IS:

CNN correspondent Michael Ware.

In terms of how “the dark masters of the art” of propaganda get their recruits online, Ware says, “it’s not like there’s a man in an overcoat offering candy”.

“The first step is self-motivated. A young Australian has to actively go on social media and seek out an Islamic recruiter,” he says. “It’s then the process of indoctrination begins as they help facilitate travel to the war zone in the Islamic State.”

As the only known westerner to be kidnapped by al-Qa’ida and survive, Ware says there is “no frame of reference in Australia” for what recruits face there.

“It’s one thing to read their Twitter feeds and to watch their propaganda videos, but until you actually see it, feel it and breathe it, there is no possible way to understand what life is like within the society that these Islamic militants create”, he says.

Even those who go for humanitarian purposes, like Perth doctor Tareq Kamleh who joined ISIS in Syria earlier this year, face life-threatening dangers.

“If you are working in a hospital where the US, Brits, French or Jordanians believe there is a military headquarters or military presence, they’ll drop a 500-pound bomb on that hospital,” he says. “You’re also exposed to Syrian regime attacks on the local population. Like in any war zone, death is constantly around everybody.”

After seven years on assignment in Iraq, Brisbane-born Ware, 46, has made the confronting war documentary, Only the Dead. The title comes from the expression, “only the dead have seen the end of war”.

Already attracting global attention, the 77-minute film, much of it shot by Ware using a $300 Handycam, premieres this weekend at the Sydney Film Festival.

“Our film will take you to war,” Ware says. “It shows the most intimate combat footage ever recorded in Iraq. You want to understand what is happening now, then watch the documentary.”

For years the gritty footage he accumulated was stowed in Tupperware boxes under his mother’s bed in Brisbane after returning from assignment.

So what does he see as the solution to more and more Aussies wanting to head off to fight with ISIS?

“We need to rob the IS of the motivation to drive our children to join them,” he says. “The only way we are going to do that is to engage with our own Muslims. These young men and women feel disconnected from Australian society because of the way we treat them. Take away that sense of grievance and injustice and you take away the motivation to go and join something like IS.”

The full article is here.

Michael Ware being interviewed on Lateline. Source: Supplied

AS AN ambitious young journalist Michael Ware “couldn’t be happier” to be in Iraq covering the US occupation but after surviving a beheading attempt and witnessing true moments of horror, he began to feel complicit in the violence around him.

The Australian journalist is the only war correspondent to survive being kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Iraq, and became obsessed with its founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He has opened up about his experiences in the film Only The Dead, which is showing at the Sydney Film Festival.

Michael was interviewed on Australian television program Lateline about his film Only the Dead and the rise of IS. The clip is online here, and a transcript is posted as well.

UPDATE: Lateline also created a series of promo photos/quotes that they tweeted…