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A. With my reporting I followed the ethical guidelines we follow in the industry; mine are posted on my website from the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association). I am not a combatant, I am an independent witness. I am there to document what I see to help inform the public to the best of my ability. My work is non-partisan and I tried to cover and explore as many layers of the war mostly from a humanistic perspective. The film is something beyond that; this film provides an experiential window to the war that we tried hard to make universal.

Q. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a much abused term these days but it is real. Did you suffer from it?

A. Yes PTSD is thrown around too easily by people who are not in the know; people even joke about it. I am not aware of having PTSD, but I am sure I was traumatized. Trauma can be a part of anyone’s journey in life and my focus has been not to focus on the past but create a way of living my life to remain in the present. I think mental illness remains a topic most people have little understanding of. My view is if you break your arm, you go to the arm doctor, if you break your head, you go to the head doctor. There should be no stigma attached to that.

Q. Why make a film? What do you hope to accomplish?

A. A film is a longer and much more focused engagement with a subject. A film can help you meditate on something in a much deeper sense. What else do we do to focus on something in life where we go into a dark room, turn off our phones and the world around us then have something engage most of our senses and emotions for a dedicated length of time like film? That’s what our film is about, a dedicated experiential engagement with the human dimension of war.

Q. Anything else you would like to share?

A. Memory and experience are at the heart of how we perceive our country and ourselves. Without historical documents like film that create windows and mirrors to the world and ourselves we will never know who we are. It’s all about how we see and don’t see what is going on that helps us choose a direction in how to live our lives.

Kandahar Journals will be screened at the Canadian War Museum Thursday evening. The event is sold out. It will be aired on The Documentary Channel on Oct. 6 at 9 p.m.