Seven Questions: Where’s Osama?

Scott Halleran/Getty Images Battle scars: Spurlock brings Osama to Sundance.

Foreign Policy: When you started this project, did you have any questions in mind in the event that you met Osama bin Laden?

Morgan Spurlock: For me, the biggest question I had in my mind was: How does this all end? We keep hearing that there are more tapes, more calls to action, more fire and brimstone, but how does it end? How do we make all of this stop? And is there a way that this can end peacefully? I, for one, have seen enough fighting and war in the last seven years that Id like to see it all come to a close.

FP: What made you feel that you were the man to find Osama bin Laden when the military and the CIA cant?

MS: In 2005, [U.S. President George W.] Bush had just been elected to a second term, and there was another tape that had just been released that Osama bin Laden had just put out. And suddenly hes at the front of every channel, on television, in the newspapers, on the radio. And people were saying, Why havent we found this guy? Why havent we brought him to justice? Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? And I said, You know, thats a great question, and I want to know the answer to that as well. And I thought, Who better to go off and try to find this guy than someone with absolutely no training or experience or expertise.

FP: President Bush has said that hes not all that concerned about finding Osama bin Laden at this point, and I know you interviewed some U.S. military personnel in the region for this film. From what you saw, is that their attitude as well?

MS: I think there is a concern, because you still have someone whose rhetoric does inspire people. The minute he puts out a tape or theres some story thats leaked about him, people get into fervor. It almost does become a call to action for a lot of peoplea lot of extremistsin some of these countries. For me, I think there were multiple things that I found out. One is, of course, you should find this guy and he should be brought to justice. But the bigger thing is, there are so many problems in the world that have led to an Osama bin Laden and that have pushed people to follow an Osama bin Laden. Until you fix those, youre really not fixing the problem.

FP: In general, did you find the people that you met in the Middle East sympathetic to your project? Or were they suspicious?

MS: People were surprisingly candid and incredibly open and willing to talk to us. Its very easy to turn on the television and see the people who are screaming and yelling and hate America, and thats kind of the image we get. And it was important for me to show a side of the world and a side of the Middle East that we dont get in two-minute sound bites on the news. The film does a great job of doing that. The people we meet along the way are these moderates. They are the silent majority that we dont get to hear a lot from, the people who still believe in America on some level and want things to change and be better, but are really upset about the foreign policy weve put into place over the last several decades.

FP: Did you get a sense that people made a separation between the U.S. government and the American people?

MS: It was really interesting. I met people who had never met an American before. All they had seen or heard is what they had gotten from the news. You know, we were in the middle of a ghetto in Morocco right outside Casablanca. There are these people who are living in shacks but have satellite dishes and are getting Fox News piped into their homes. So their image of America is this. This is what they hear and this is what they see. So, Im meeting people for the first time, and they tell me, Youre the first American Ive ever met. And were having this conversation, and they say, Are more Americans like you? and Ill say, Yes, there are millions of Americans who are just like me. And they really did try to make a distinction between people like me and the American government, between the people and the policies. And Im no foreign-policy expert, but for me that was a great step in the right direction.

FP: Did you ever worry about how it would be perceived, making a comedic film about a serious subject like this?

MS: Ive always found that its easier to get people to listen when youre dealing with a hard, dense subject, with a little a bit of humor and a little bit of levity. Its the Mary Poppins school of filmmaking: A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down. We dont just want to feed you spinach; we want you to enjoy your spinach as youre eating it. Its like one of those restaurants where you get the spinach, but its covered in cheese.

FP: After making these two films, what would you say is more dangerous for your health, being an American in Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan or eating McDonalds for a month?

MS: I would have to probably say that being in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a bit more dangerous. Because at least when I was eating the McDonalds, I was putting my fate into my own hands. When youre over there, there are so many other people that can control your destiny.

Morgan Spurlock is an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker. The third season of his television series 30 Days will air in June.