Deborah Scranton‘s The War Tapes (SenArt) is an Iraq War documentary composed of footage shot by National Guard guys doing their service. Here’s a description of a “deft little turn” in the film in David Carr‘s 6.19 N.Y. Times column, to wit: “Specialist Mike Moriarty is filming his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Kevin Shangraw, as they bounce along in a Humvee. He asks his leader for his take on the broader mission, and Sergeant Shangraw comes straight off the dome with a government-issue rationale. ‘Well, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the Iraqis to establish a new history in the country and be able to be a free and democratic society, which in turn should stabilize the whole Middle East and create a freer and more stable earth as we know it.’ Then Moriarty, unseen, asks, ‘Tell me how you really feel.’ Shangraw waits a beat as the bleak landscape flies by in the window before answering. ‘Then, after that happens, maybe we can buy everybody in the world a puppy.'”