3W Salon // Thor Neureiter Speaks July 17th @ Design of the Times

Hey Fam,

We're super excited to host a screening and conversation with independent documentary producer, cameraman, and editor Thor Neureiter here at 3rd Ward on Tuesday, July 17. Besides having a really cool name, his crucial POV in conversations around US foreign policy and domestic politics.

We had a minute to interview Thor amid his busy traveling schedule:

3W: How'd you get so into exploring U.S. foreign policy in your work?

TN: My interest in foreign policy isn't so much the obvious thing of reporting the war. I don't have that interest in dodging bullets, and it's great that other people do. War is our most impactful form of foreign policy, but what I want to know is, what happens afterwards? We've been in Afghanistan for how long? 9 years, almost 10 years. There was an article in the NY Times, it was a very rosy picture article about the mineral wealth in the country, sort of like a knight-in shining-armor story. So I started doing research about minerals in Afghanistan.

3W: Is this a new discovery, these minerals in Afghanistan?

TN: This story goes back hundreds of years. But the terrain is so rugged, it's really hard to access the mountainside and the minerals. There's really no infrastructure; Afghanistan doesn't really have a railroad. It's not like a shining moment. It started with the English, then the Indians, the Italians and Germans, and of course the Soviets. the U.S. took all that info and created their own high-tech database that sort of mapped everything out. It is a really phenomenal thing, a century's worth of geological location. 

3W: Where in Brooklyn do you live?

TN: Park Slope-- been there off and on since 2001. I always come back to Brooklyn. I like the trees and the neighborhood feel. As a transplant, it's one of the first places i lived, and I guess I keep going back.

3W: So, your latest film is about Mitt Romney being Mormon. What's that about?

TN: I've been fortunate to work with senior producers of a weekly current affairs show, People & Power, at Al-Jazeerah, Bob Abeshouse. With this being an election year, it's especially important. Mitt Romney is a 5th generation Mormon, from the founding family's of the religion in the U.S. If he does become president, he will be the most religious person to ever become president. He was basically the Boston Archdiocese if you make a comparison to the Catholic religion. On the surface it's sort of a weird story, oh he's a Mormon so what? But he's actually a very influential person in his church. We tried to add to the conversation about domestic politics.

As you can see, he's no stranger to knocking on the toughest doors and getting answers.

While attending Columbia Journalism School's mid-career MA program, Thor traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2010/11 to report and shoot The Afghan Project.

His investigations uncovered that a war-torn Afghanistan's untapped mineral riches have the potential to reshape the broken economy. What's it worth? 

About $1 trillion dollars. This can change everything. As the war and regional instability continues to drive people into Kabul, the film includes sentiments of everyday Afghani people.

Check out this clip and come join us Tuesday night to hear Thor speak about this thought-provoking work.

The Afghan Project - Open (WIP) from Thor Neureiter on Vimeo.

film clip courtesy of Thor Neureiter