We count on photojournalists and documentary makers to gain access to dangerous, difficult situations. But images in themselves are insufficient — what we really crave is insight.
The Israeli and Palestinian photographers employed by Reuters and shown on the job in “Shooting Under Fire” deliver time and again on both counts. But the movie itself is a superficial travelogue that’s ultimately more entertaining than enlightening.
“Shooting Under Fire” is one of two Israeli-themed documentaries screening in the San Francisco International Film Festival starting Sunday, April 30.
The German-Israeli film centers on Reinhard Krause, a likable German finishing a four-year stint as head of Reuters’ Jerusalem photo bureau. He is not only a passionate photographer but a thoughtful judge of the impact of images.
“It’s easy to make nice pictures,” he says in a voiceover that opens the movie. “It’s much more difficult to understand the whole story. To find the truth is, maybe, nearly impossible.”
Krause decides which photos go out on the wire, and he takes his responsibility seriously, consistently disdaining sensationalism in favor of news value.
In a gruesome but not unusual case, Krause hustles to the scene of a suicide bombing. The remains of the two Israeli soldiers killed in the attack have been removed, but the intact, disembodied head of the female bomber lies on the ground.
He shoots it all, but back at the office he selects a picture of a crouching Israeli technician collecting fragments instead of the more shocking image. His explanation reveals an editor’s orientation — not the photojournalist-as-cowboy we might expect.
But “Shooting Under Fire” doesn’t devote more time to issues such as balance, objectivity and representation. That’s the stuff of the New York Review of Books, not high-octane filmmaking. Co-directors Sacha Mirzoeff and Bettina Borgfeld prefer action sequences to static talking-head interviews.
To that end, they bounce along with a Palestinian photographer inside Nablus, and with an Israeli to the settlement of Netzarim in Gaza. They use a litany of quotes from the shooters to convey the danger that attends their work. And to further ratchet the tension, somehow the filmmakers kick in a percussive soundtrack.
Despite its slickness and shallowness, “Shooting Under Fire,” shot in late 2004, won the German TV award for best reportage. In its 72 fast-paced minutes, we learn that Reuters minimizes travel and security issues by hiring Israelis to shoot in Israel and Palestinians to shoot in the territories. (Krause works both sides of the border, but picks his spots.) The Israelis and Palestinians share an employer but have never met.
The film has a subtle but discernible point of view that’s generally absent from the numerous tough-minded photographs on display. It comes through most strongly when Krause navigates the checkpoints. If this is how difficult it is for a European with press credentials to travel, we can only imagine what it’s like for the Palestinians.
“Shooting Under Fire” shows 9:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 2 and 3:45 p.m. Thursday, May 4 at the Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post St., S.F. Tickets: $7.50-$11, at www.sffs.org or (925) 866-9559.