Submitted by James Longley, Aug 9, 2008 11:16

When Martin Tsai says that my documentary film, Iraq in Fragments, did "disappointing business" the question that pops into my mind is: Disappointing to whom, exactly? Iraq in Fragments was financially profitable even before it was released in theaters. Did my film make millions of dollars? No. But everyone who invested in my film will make their money back several times over. How many Hollywood productions can say that? Using Hollywood numbers as the benchmark for the financial performance of an independent, foreign-language documentary without even knowing how the budget expenses compare to the revenue gives a false impression of how documentary films are actually faring for the people who invest in them.

And it is also a stretch to say that the marketplace has been "oversaturated" with films about Iraq and Afghanistan, when only a handful of such films have been released theatrically in the last six years, and an even smaller number of those were ever shown outside the art house theater circuit. It would be at least as accurate to say that the marketplace has been oversaturated with romantic comedies no intelligent person would ever pay money to see if there was any alternative at the local cineplex.

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