February 29, 2008
Five years ago, on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kurt and the late Susan Sontag spoke about the ways artists portray war -- how they respond to it and why we need artists to help us understand it. Some of the artwork discussed included Francisco Goya's "The Disasters of War" and Jeff Wall's "Dead Troops Talk".
What do we know about a particular war after we've seen it reenacted dozens of times in dozens of different films? The U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, and we've been watching movies about it ever since. Film historians Larry Suid and Frank McAdams help us sort through them. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
When the Congolese civil war broke out in 1998, the novelist Emmanuel Dongala and his family fled Brazzaville. While he was hiding with 40 others in a house as rockets hissed by and exploded just a few meters away, books became Dongala's refuge. Produced by Michele Siegel.
Aleksandar Hemon, the author of the novel Nowhere Man, was in Chicago in 1992 when the war began in his hometown of Sarajevo. He found out much as he could, through TV news, phone calls, and letters from friends -- and found solace through the poetry of Semezdin Mehmedinovic. Produced by Michele Siegel.
Susan Sontag explains how she staged theater in a war zone, as well as her opinions on when a war should or should not be waged. Sontag passed away just a year after this recording. A book of her speeches and essays called "At the Same Time" was published in 2007.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
