Jim

A sad, painful, yet also inspiring portrait of one man's enormous courage in the face of monstrousness, filmmaker Brian Oakes's HBO-aired documentary Jim chronicles the events that led to the murder of American journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIS in 2014. This film features a mix of wartime footage shot by or featuring Foley, along with interviews of his parents, siblings, colleagues, and former captives who were jailed with him in the months prior to his death. The aggregate vision of Foley that emerges from all of these shared perspectives is that of a young man too restless for the suburban life embraced by his family, compelled instead to seek out the frontlines of war-ravaged countries and report on the suffering. Against his family's wishes, Foley became a “combat journalist,” one of a breed of freelancers writing about and shooting video in Iraq (embedded with soldiers), and then on his own during Libya's descent into chaos following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi. Foley was kidnapped by a Libyan militia and held for a period before returning to the U.S. After that, his family and friends were astonished when he chose to go to Syria just as Bashar al-Assad began to bomb his own people. Heartbreaking images from some of those atrocities are seen, accompanied by accounts of Foley's efforts to help people while reporting about the carnage. Foley's lengthy imprisonment, torture, and beheading by ISIS are also detailed (images of the gruesome execution are not shown here), and the film presents disturbing evidence that U.S. official policy of not negotiating with terrorists (unlike other nations that were able to get captives released) was short-sighted and inhumane. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)