{"id":52883,"date":"2025-07-10T01:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52883\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T01:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:47:09","slug":"retrograde-producers-claim-first-amendment-protections-in-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52883\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Retrograde’ Producers Claim First Amendment Protections in Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe producers and distributors of Retrograde<\/a>, a documentary following the final nine months of America\u2019s 20-year war in Afghanistan, are claiming First Amendment protections in a bid to dismiss a lawsuit faulting them for the killing of one of the title\u2019s subjects by the Taliban.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the heart of the lawsuit: The death of Omar, a member of a group of Afghan minesweepers tasked with protecting Green Berets in the region who was allegedly tracked down from a scene in Retrograde. In a close-up, the camera pans to him as another member of the National Mine Reduction Group voices concerns of being found by the Taliban when he returns to civilian life. A clip from that segment of the documentary later spread like wildfire on TikTok in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, Omar\u2019s wife and child, who were extracted from the country, sued<\/a> Disney and director Matthew Heineman\u2019s Our Time Projects for wrongful death and negligence. They accused the documentary\u2019s producers of exploiting Omar\u2019s identity for \u201ccommercial gain while knowingly placing him in grave danger\u201d and failing to adhere to industry standards regarding the protection of people appearing in documentaries filmed in war zones.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case spotlights thorny questions involving the responsibilities of journalists and documentarians who must balance telling a truthful and compelling narrative with the potential dangers their subjects face for cooperating.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a Monday filing, Our Time says it was engaging in protected speech to further reporting on the U.S.\u2019s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a matter of significant public importance involving a chaotic end to the longest war in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\n\tRetrograde explores the consequences of the U.S. government\u2019s decision to pull military support for Afghanistan. Fallout from the withdrawal involved the Taliban gaining access to the former government\u2019s records, which led to the killings of hundreds of Afghans who supported opposing forces. Our Time was the only documentary crew with clearance to embed with the U.S. military, which reviewed and approved the documentary for release, throughout this time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith up close footage, the Documentary shows rather than tells about the U.S.\u2019s withdrawal and the impact on those left behind,\u201d writes Nicholas Jampol, a lawyer for Our Time, in the filing. \u201cThis is quintessential on-the-ground war zone reporting protected by the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tImposing liability on producers or documentarians for the actions of third parties, in this case the Taliban, will have a chilling effect on war time reporting moving forward, argue Retrograde\u2018s producers, which declined to comment. This, in turn, will limit publicly available information, particularly in situations in which there\u2019s little access to closed-door decisions by the government.<\/p>\n

\n\tA major issue in the lawsuit involves whether the documentarians should\u2019ve blurred Omar\u2019s face. Retrograde\u2018s producers respond that there\u2019s no duty to do so, even in instances when promises were made to obscure the identities of subjects. Regardless, Our Time says it obtained consent to film Omar and all other U.S. and Afghan servicemembers and contractors.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while the estate claims that Omar, who was tortured before his death, was identified by the Taliban because of the documentary, Retrograde\u2018s producers say he was found through other means. This includes employment records and other military intelligence, which were used to track down hundreds of other Afghans killed for fighting alongside the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, National Geographic<\/a> quietly removed the documentary from its platforms after The Washington Post published a story<\/a> exploring whether the feature put some of its subjects in danger, with the title no longer appearing on Disney+ or Hulu. The Radio Television Digital News Association later rescinded a prestigious journalism award to the documentary, citing background information it received over the \u201cfilmmaking process\u201d following publication of the Post\u2019s article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The producers and distributors of Retrograde, a documentary following the final nine months of America\u2019s 20-year war in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,39439,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-52883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-national-geographic","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114826421507217155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}