The Brown Alumni Magazine just published a feature ‘Hearts and Minds’ looking behind the scenes at the making of Human Terrain. The article features interviews with the directors David Udris, James Der Derian and Michael Udris focusing on the life story of Michael Bhatia, a graduate of Brown in 1999 who returned in 2006 as a visiting scholar. While a scholar at Brown he collaborated on ‘The Military Cultural Awareness Project’ at the Watson Institute and was a consultant for Human Terrain, before in late 2007 joining Human Terrain Team One in Afghanistan, where he was killed in May 2008. As the directors reflect on the progression of the film as well as Michael Bhatia’s death in the process of its production, the article asks questions about the ethical implications surrounding the U.S. counterinsurgency policy of “winning hearts and minds” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You can read the article here.