Human Terrain

(USA, 2009, 75 mins, digital video)

North American Premiere

executive producer: James Der Derian
producer: David Udris, Michael Udris

In the middle of the Mojave Desert in California stands a makeshift Iraqi village complete with Iraqi role players. It is an Urban Operation Training Environment where Marines practice not only combat maneuvers, but also how to connect with peaceful citizens. Today, a successful soldier needs to be both a professional killer and a diplomat. In order to fight a war against only a section of the population, the soldier must successfully navigate both the physical geography and “human terrains.” The military has enlisted the help of social scientists, which has sparked outrage and debate in the scholarly community. Anthropologists question the military’s sincerity when it wants to quantify a people’s culture into pictographs that fit onto a card, and find themselves caught between trying to prevent the death of innocent civilians and being used as a military tool to pick out the insurgents. This riveting documentary captures both the military and scholarly standpoints through interviews with leaders in the military’s Human Terrain System, soldiers, journalists, and anthropologists, as well as footage from war zones and training camps. Co-director Michael Udris is an alumnus of UW–Milwaukee, and co-director James Der Derian is a research professor of international studies at the Watson Institute and former Rhodes Scholar who attended high school in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Winner, Audience Award 2009 Festival Dei Popoli; official selection, 2009 Copenhagen International Documentary Festival.

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