A & E

When Jeremy Zerechak decided to go to Penn State to study filmmaking, the National Guard seemed like a good way to pay for college.

He had no idea that this fateful decision would present him with his first great opportunity as a filmmaker -- as a participant in one of the central conflicts and mysteries of our time, the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"I joined (the National Guard) in 1998, a very different time and place -- the Clinton administration, foreign relations were good," says Zerechak, 28, of Crafton. "I got home (from the Guard), enrolled at Penn State, studying film for three-and-a-half years. I had about a semester and change to go until graduation when I was pulled to deploy.

"It was too grand an opportunity for me not to try to make a feature documentary."

The result, "Land of Confusion," gets its Pittsburgh premiere Wednesday at the Harris Theater, Downtown. Despite its tiny budget -- less than $15,000 -- it's a very well-made, grunt's-eye view of this often baffling conflict, where nothing ever seemed to go as planned.

"Land of Confusion" is a fitting title. Even before they shipped out, Zerechak's Guard unit was changing in unexpected and disturbing ways. They were first shipped off to Fort Dix, N.J., where they trained for desert warfare in the snow.

"We trained on tanks our whole military careers," Zerechank says. "But then, when it was time to go to war, we were given Humvees instead."

Upon arrival in Iraq, they learned they had been assigned to the Iraq Survey Group, the unit tasked with finding the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was supposed to be hiding.

"It was very weird for us to take it all in," Zerechak says. "We were really at the helm of the biggest question -- the investigation into getting the truth and answers to that question. That was very much a time when everybody was like, 'We're going to find those weapons of mass destruction. That's why we went to war.' The possibility of not finding them completely turned a lot of things upside down."

Zerechak says his unit grew quite comfortable with his camera constantly in their faces.

"They warmed up to it pretty quickly," he says. "I was someone that had the camera so often, it became kind of an extremity of mine. It wasn't like I was the media, because soldiers know they are to act a certain way, not say certain things, keep their military bearing when there's a journalist with a camera and a microphone there. But for me, I was able to capture this very unique perspective, very natural.

"I had about 56 hours of footage that I condensed into a 91-minute film. Some moments -- more so those candid moments outside the barracks with the guys arguing about the war -- you see this evolution of the soldiers going from a little more gung ho and excited about the mission, which was accurate to how it unfolded, to, at the end, being a little frustrated and jaded by everything," Zerechak says.

"Those moments in front of the barracks -- those beautifully, seemingly scripted moments, where these guys are going back and forth about the war's politics and beyond that -- those are some of the most memorable moments."

Despite the sensitive nature of the Iraq Survey Group's mission, the Army never gave Zerechak a hard time about filming.

"I was trying to operate as covertly as possible," he says. "I tried to stay relatively inconspicuous. My company level command knew what I was doing -- but perhaps did not appreciate the scope of what it was going to be -- a kind of national, festival circuit film, possibly a distributed film. Company level, they knew what I was doing and were fine with it. I did kind of strategically avoid any situation that would have brought the wrong attention to me. We were in a place that was very, very secretive. 'The Stars and Stripes' (Army newspaper reporters) were not even allowed to be on the base."

So far, "Land of Confusion" has won the Special Jury Award for "Bold Truth" at the Florida Film Festival, and the Special Jury Award at the Atlanta Film Festival for "Great Achievement in First Documentary Feature."

"We've had some preliminary interest from HBO," Zerechak says. "HBO is the mecca -- any filmmaker knows that. Ultimately, we want to round out the festival circuit, and somewhere along the way, hopefully get a broadcast distro deal and/or a DVD distro deal. And, of course, looking forward to screening in Pittsburgh."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News