There are some documentaries that are like stepping on broken glass to watch. Painful, shocking, and they leave you with a wound. Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi is one of them.
This feature-length documentary is a window into the work of Ajmal Naqshbandi, an Afghan man who worked as a fixer in Afghanistan before he was kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban in 2007. A 'fixer' is a journalism term for a local contact who works closely with foreign reporters to arrange interviews, establish contacts, and facilitate reporting in their locale.
The broken glass in the film goes beyond Ajmal’s death, which underlies every scene in the movie. You know that he dies, and you know how—but you learn the murkiness of the world he worked in as the scenes of the movie play out.
“I think some people are very optimistic or hopeful about Afghanistan,” said Ian Olds, the film’s director. “But it’s hard to be so optimistic after seeing this film.”
Olds directs both narrative and documentary work. He is an award-winning filmmaker who also co-directed a documentary about Iraq with Garrett Scott. Scott passed away before he and Olds could start working on their next project with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. So, Olds decided to take a research trip to Afghanistan anyway, and wound up getting the footage for Fixer.
“It was only after Ajmal passed away that it became a kind of obligation to tell the story,” said Olds. The film has been screened at festivals around the world, and garnered Olds the Best New Documentary Filmmaker award at Tribeca—auspicious for a filmmaker who usually makes fiction.
The result of the work Olds did in Afghanistan is unsettling. At many of the screenings, he says audience members have been totally silent through the closing credits.
“You never know, when you make something, how it will resonate with people,” said Mr. Olds.
Inside the Story
For Christian Parenti, the American journalist who employed Ajmal’s services as a fixer and was filmed by Olds reporting in Afghanistan, the movie’s purpose is multi-layered.
“The purpose of the movie is to show how journalism works,” said Parenti after a recent screening of Fixer in New York. “It’s to show how the sausage is made, as we say.”
The footage in Fixer is often jarring, both physically and psychologically, but it gets a stark message across: Afghanistan is not the “good war”—something Parenti has no qualms about expressing.
“I think Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan is a grave mistake—there has to be a total transformation of U.S. policy,” said Parenti, who worked with Ajmal just two months before he was kidnapped and killed. The tragedy reinforced his views on the war.
“I feel like it’s organically a war story,” explained Parenti. “War isn’t just about good-looking guys in uniforms—it’s terror and just total heartbreak.”
Parenti, who has a doctorate in sociology and writes for numerous publications, reporting stories from places like Afghanistan is intertwined with politics.
“I take politics very seriously—this is the way I’ve found to be involved [in politics], and I feel involved,” he continued, adding that he doesn’t think that the new administration in Washington is on the right track.
“The primary thing for this administration is the theater of Afghanistan, and not looking like a bunch of wimps who got scared and left.”
As you see Parenti go about the intrepid and sometimes dangerous job of being a reporter in Afghanistan in Fixer, it’s clear he’s incredibly close to the action. In one scene, the sound of incoming planes looms as Parenti hurriedly interviews Taliban fighters. Yet despite the risks, he thinks his work as a journalist is worthwhile.
“It’s a tremendous privilege,” he said. “It’s like having a front row seat for history. I [just] hope that I make something useful for people.”
Whatever viewers’ political views about the war in Afghanistan, Fixer is worth watching for both its historical value and relevance to current affairs. Simply on the level of telling a chapter in the life of another human being, it effortlessly accomplishes bringing Ajmal temporarily to life and retelling his bitter end.
Fixer premieres on HBO on Monday, August 17 and will run through Aug. 30. More information and the full schedule can be found at www.fixerdoc.com .
Inside the Story
For Christian Parenti, the American journalist who employed Ajmal’s services as a fixer and was filmed by Olds reporting in Afghanistan, the movie’s purpose is multi-layered.
Parenti looms large in the film as he and Ajmal go about working together, and co-produced Fixer with Nancy Roth. He says it goes beyond just telling the story of what happened to his colleague and friend.
“The purpose of the movie is to show how journalism works,” said Parenti after a recent screening of Fixer in New York. “It’s to show how the sausage is made, as we say.”
The footage in Fixer is often jarring, both physically and psychologically, but it gets a stark message across: Afghanistan is not the “good war”—something Parenti has no qualms about expressing.
“I think Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan is a grave mistake—there has to be a total transformation of U.S. policy,” said Parenti, who worked with Ajmal just two months before he was kidnapped and killed. The tragedy reinforced his views on the war.
“I feel like it’s organically a war story,” explained Parenti. “War isn’t just about good-looking guys in uniforms—it’s terror and just total heartbreak.”
Parenti, who has a doctorate in sociology and writes for numerous publications, reporting stories from places like Afghanistan is intertwined with politics.
“I take politics very seriously—this is the way I’ve found to be involved [in politics], and I feel involved,” he continued, adding that he doesn’t think that the new administration in Washington is on the right track.
“The primary thing for this administration is the theater of Afghanistan, and not looking like a bunch of wimps who got scared and left.”
As you see Parenti go about the intrepid and sometimes dangerous job of being a reporter in Afghanistan in Fixer, it’s clear he’s incredibly close to the action. In one scene, the sound of incoming planes looms as Parenti hurriedly interviews Taliban fighters. Yet despite the risks, he thinks his work as a journalist is worthwhile.
“It’s a tremendous privilege,” he said. “It’s like having a front row seat for history. I [just] hope that I make something useful for people.”
Whatever viewers’ political views about the war in Afghanistan, Fixer is worth watching for both its historical value and relevance to current affairs. Simply on the level of telling a chapter in the life of another human being, it effortlessly accomplishes bringing Ajmal temporarily to life and retelling his bitter end.
Fixer premieres on HBO on Monday, August 17 and will run through Aug. 30. More information and the full schedule can be found at www.fixerdoc.com.
