I attended the Tribeca Film Festival with my friend and colleague Stewart Nusbaumer, whom I have known since 1975. We worked together reviewing films, doing interviews, and talking at the parties with journalists, photographers, publicists, and filmmakers. And, since Stoli vodka was one of the festival’s sponsors, the booze was plentiful at those parties. Stew has a lot more experience going to film festivals than I have, and he told me that if free booze isn’t offered at these events, the journalists won’t come. “I am serious,” he insisted. He said that I became a true journalist when I went back to the bar and asked the bartender to put more vodka into my mixed drink.

There was so much to do that neither of us had the chance to see all the films we wanted to see and interview all the people we were interested in.

So we had to make choices. Stew would see this film, I would see that one. Stew would interview this director, while I tried to track down another. I guess “hectic” is the best word to describe the whirlwind ten days we spent at the festival.

Stewart is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, so he was more suited than I to interview Zachary Iscol, a former Marine infantry officer who served from 2003-2005 in Iraq’s most violent province, Al Anbar. Zachary has made a documentary film, a work in progress at this point, called The Western Front. Zachary says he returned to Al Anbar “to confront some of the choices that I made in combat.” One of the difficult aspects of fighting in Iraq is often not being able to tell the difference between combatants and civilians. How do you protect yourself and your fellow Marines without killing innocent people? Zachary says, “I bear that guilt.”

Zachary made the film in hope that people will learn something from the mistakes he has made and the lessons he has learned. Perhaps, then, those mistakes might not be repeated. He comes across as an intelligent, personable, and caring young man. I hope many Americans take this interview to heart and that they see Zachary’s film when it becomes available to them.