The Most Secret Place on Earth

5/3/2010

Kate Liana – Kaleidoscope

Appeared in Asia Life, June 2010

The Most Secret Place on Earth – The CIAs Covert War in Laos

The imagery and psychology of the Vietnam War loom large in our collective memories and imaginations. Largely unknown and unexplored, however was the covert, parallel war that began five years prior in Laos. Researching ideas for a new project, filmmaker Marc Eberle traveled to Laos in 2002. "I saw the remnants of war everywhere, giant craters and scraps of metal from bombs." Laos was the biggest air war in history, and it was secret, its existence little known to anyone. Marc sought to understand how this came into existence, how you go about creating and maintaining a secret war and what it meant for the world and warfare in the future. He was disappointed in the way other books and films on the subject had glorified the war, with no thought given to the Laotian people who had been the victims. The Hmong, backed by the CIA to fight against the communist Lao and North Vietnamese had been abandoned by the Americans and shunned by their own government, and were now living in shambles as refugees .

During the time he was shooting the war in Afghanistan started, and he immediately saw the parallels. "I couldn't believe it, the tactics, the weapons, the political theory were the same. Laos was the progenitor of war in the 21^st century: outsourcing war to private companies, no accountability to congress or the public, to the press. I saw it all happening again and thought this was the time to tell this story."

His research brought him to Long Cheng, the secret military base that served as the CIA headquarters. It had been closed to the world since the CIA evacuated in 1975, and Marc and his film crew were the first foreigners to gain access to it. That would serve as the emotional and symbolic core of the story, and the film is built around this base and its history. He made contact with the son of a high ranking government official, who had access to the base and was eager to show the world all that had happened there. An entrepreneur, he also had a financial interest to open the restricted military zone to tourists.

The film itself is a sobering, thorough account of the history and methodology that led to the atrocities. Chilling archival footage of bombing raids and decimated villages is juxtaposed with the lush mountains and valleys of Northern Laos that became the focal point of the war. It ends with a heartbreaking look at the refugees and scarred landscape left behind by the Americans' actions. It recently aired on ARTE, the German / French art channel, and has made the rounds of the international film festivals, where it was nominated for many awards and won an award for the best use of archival footage at the History Makers' conference in New York City. It will screen here at the Overseas Press Club and the new MetaHouse next month.

Background

After studying history, media and culture at university, Marc was eager to create his own films. "I found it the most intriguing art form, and wanted to reach a lot of people, which film allows for." Instead of going the traditional route of film school, he worked at an archive, and studied images and documentaries. "Society is so fractured and disconnected now, I'm always trying to expose stories of what's going on in the world and transmit it to the public."

Marc first came to Cambodia in 2001 to make a film on the history of tourism at Angkor Wat and was blown away by the people and culture. "Their faces were like stories, you see the scars of war but also this intense warmth and purity." He felt like he had just started to scratch the surface of what and who Cambodia was, and was driven to go further. "This place is so evocative, there is so much tension. It's perfect for telling stories, don't need to construct that."

His latest project here is a documentary on the post-Khmer Rouge generation that are growing up now with no experience with the past that previous generations dealt with. He aims to show how this new generation will live their lives. He is heartened by the growing art scene and the number of young artists who are starting to challenge the old models, starting to look deeper and questioning society. "Foreigners come here and tell all the negative stories. I wanted to do a positive one"

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He believes young people will start to use art as a vehicle for expression, and even at some point to talk about the Khmer Rouge era. They are already starting to break with the traditional ways of representation, and starting to view art as a vehicle for discussion, reflection, and expression. He is also working on a separate film about the Khmer Rouge tribunal that will focus on how modern Cambodian society is reconciling with the past and concepts of justice. And there are still many stories in Cambodia that he's burning to tell involving history, politics, religion. "Every stone you turn over here, there's a story."