Matthew VanDyke

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Matthew "Matt" VanDyke (* 1979 in Baltimore , Maryland , United States ) is an American documentary filmmaker and activist who joined the rebels as an armed fighter during the civil war in Libya and was imprisoned in Libya for five and a half months.

Life

Education

VanDyke grew up as an only child with his mother in Baltimore . He obtained university entrance qualification through a General Educational Development Test and first attended a community college . In 2002, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County , summa cum laude. In 2004 he graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, DC with a Masters Degree in Security Studies with a focus on the Middle East . His thesis was entitled Why Al Qaeda Targets the US . While at college, he wrote a column for the student newspaper The Hoya and co-hosted a show on Georgetown University campus radio.

VanDyke applied for an internship with the CIA during his studies but was not accepted. After graduating, he tried unsuccessfully to set up his own business with a cousin, and later he took various odd jobs.

Motorcycle travel

Inspired by the adventure films of Alby Mangels , who always filmed himself, VanDyke decided to get to know the Arab world, which he had never visited before, and to travel it as his personal “crash course in masculinity” on a motorcycle, which he made a documentary about wanted to. His first trip took him from 2007 to 2009 with a Kawasaki KLR 650 from Spain to Morocco , Mauritania , Tunisia , Libya , Egypt , Jordan , Syria and Iraq , where he worked as an English teacher and for a regional newspaper in his home country, the Baltimore Examiner, wrote two articles as an embedded journalist for the US Army. He also financed the trip through sponsorship on his blog, and between Morocco and Mauritania he smuggled cars for stolen goods in Europe. The trip was interrupted by several flights to the United States, to VanDyke's mother and girlfriend, whom he had met while preparing for the trip in Madrid, and once to heal a broken collarbone that he had sustained in a motorcycle fall.

In 2010 a six-month motorcycle trip followed together with the American photographer Daniel “Dan” Britt from Iraq via Turkey and Iran to Afghanistan , where both once again accompanied the US troops in the Afghanistan war as embedded journalists . The two were arrested several times on their trip. VanDyke returned to Baltimore in December 2010.

Civil War in Libya

On his travels, Matthew VanDyke made close friends with a group of Libyans around Nouri Fonas, whom he describes as a "hippie". Shortly after his return to the United States, when the Arab Spring and finally the civil war began in Libya , he was in contact with this group. They told him about wounded, killed and disappeared friends and asked "Why is nobody helping us?" VanDyke: “Something happened to me. I couldn't just keep working. I felt like I had to go to Libya. After my long travels I didn't really have friends in America anymore, but in Libya I made real friends. ”VanDyke stopped working on the film War Zone Bikers about his second motorcycle trip and on a book at the end of February 2011, so that both were never completed. Instead, he traveled to Libya with his camera to join the rebels in the fight against Muammar al-Gaddafi's forces. On the other hand, he told his mother and girlfriend that he expected the fighting to end before his arrival and that he would leave if government forces came too close to his location.

On March 7, VanDyke joined a group of seven militarily inexperienced Libyan rebels around Nouri Fonas in Benghazi. On March 13, 2011, the group was ambushed in Brega during a first reconnaissance mission to the front . VanDyke passed out and found himself in a prison where he was interrogated and told he would never see America again. His own video recordings were played to him, on which he revealed himself as a revolutionary. In the days that followed, he was transferred to Maktab-al-Nasser Prison in Tripoli , where he spent 85 days of solitary confinement in a two-and-a-half-square-meter cell and was allowed to use the toilet three times a day. There were no further interrogations or court hearings, and the torture that VanDyke feared did not take place. He was then transferred to Abu Salim Prison , where he spent an additional 81 days in solitary confinement, with a carton of milk as the only distraction. VanDyke made himself a noose and hid a plastic bag from the guards so that he could commit suicide if necessary.

VanDyke's mother turned on the authorities and the media to clarify the fate of her son, and the American politician Dutch Ruppersberger publicly called on the Libyan government to report on his whereabouts. On May 25, 2011, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim declared that he had no information on VanDyke. In early August, the government confirmed that he was in their custody, but did not allow visits or talks, and kept the prison he was in secret. Delegates from Human Rights Watch asked during an inspection of the Abu Salim prison if VanDyke is located there, but this was denied.

On August 24, 2011, as part of the liberation of Tripoli, VanDyke's cell door was opened and he escaped from prison. He spent a few days in the house of a fellow prisoner before moving to the Corinthia Hotel Tripoli as a guest of the National Transitional Council and talking to reporters about his imprisonment. VanDyke said he did not want to leave the country until Gaddafi's troops were defeated and all prisoners of war were freed. Human Rights Watch expressed disappointment with this decision in light of its own liberation efforts. There was also criticism from those around the Committee to Protect Journalists , which had also campaigned for his liberation. In particular, he was accused of pretending to be a journalist and thereby endangering himself and the work of actual journalists. VanDyke denies allegations that he or his family ever posed him as a journalist.

VanDyke met again with Nouri Fonas and in Ras Lanuf with the commander of the Ali-Hassan-al-Jaber Brigade , who allowed him to join the now officially established Libyan National Liberation Army. The American was at the front with the rebels as they advanced from Harawa to Gaddafi's hometown and new Libyan capital, Sirte . In the final battle of the Civil War, VanDyke was involved in the fierce fighting on the Eastern Front for Sirte. He took on various roles and branches of arms, but was mainly active as a DSchK machine gunner, as he had more experience with heavy weapons than most of his colleagues due to his time with the US soldiers. Aside from the fighting, he supported reporters on the battlefield.

He returned to the United States on November 7, 2011 and told reporters that he wanted to get ready for the Syrian revolution.

Not anymore

In 2012, Matthew VanDyke began preparations for the short documentary Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution , which was said to improve the image of the rebels in the civil war in Syria and to bring them international support. He said that in view of the lack of equipment for the Syrian rebels, he preferred this route of support to a renewed combat mission. He wanted to finance the film through a Kickstarter campaign for $ 19,500, which was canceled after around 15,000 dollars collected because Kickstarter does not want to finance high-risk activities, and with 13,000 dollars from his mother.

In October 2012, VanDyke filmed for a month for the film in Aleppo , which at the time was under artillery fire and attacked by airplanes. The Syrian government warned VanDyke on state television that he was a terrorist with the Free Syrian Army , which dramatically increased the risk of him being kidnapped or assassinated.

Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution was published on YouTube in September 2013 and was broadcast in October by ARD in a slightly revised version as part of the Panorama program. The film won the short film award at the One World Media Awards and reached first place (Non Fiction) in the short film competition of the USA Film Festival .

Point and Shoot

In April 2014, documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry released his film Point and Shoot at the Tribeca Film Festival , where the film won the Best Documentary Award. The film consists of VanDyke's footage from 2007 to 2011, supplemented by interviews and an animated passage on Libyan captivity. He explains Matt VanDyke's personal background, shows his motorcycle trips and his struggles in Libya. The conflict of the dual role of cameraman and fighter is also worked out several times in pictures and comments.

The film also won the Special Jury Award for Documentaries at the Independent Film Festival of Boston , and VanDyke won the Special Jury Award for courage in filmmaking at the Little Rock Film Festival .

Sons of Liberty

In February 2015, it was announced that VanDyke had founded the non-profit Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), which consists of himself and several American war veterans. The mission of SOLI is to train the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), a militia of Assyrian Christians , with the stated aim of protecting Iraq's Christian cultural heritage in the Nineveh region from the Islamic State and regaining conquered territories. A total of 2000 fighters are to be trained. Whether VanDyke is allowed to carry out military training on Iraqi soil without appropriate permits is controversial. It is also criticized that VanDyke's efforts could promote a religious war and that jihad propaganda could be open to attack due to American influence.

Private

VanDyke is a member of Mensa .

According to his own admission, he has suffered from several obsessive-compulsive disorders from a young age , for example avoiding contact with sugar, washing his hands excessively often and regularly fearing that he has hit people. These disturbances got worse in captivity and in the war.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Van Smith: The Accidental Warrior , Baltimore City Paper, July 10, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  2. ^ A b c d Sarah Brumfield: Md. Writer Among Journalists Missing in Libya , Associated Press, June 4, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Robert Young Pelton: Matt VanDyke: Filmmaker / Fighter , Dangerous Magazine, March 29, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b c Glenn Russo: Alumnus Missing in Libya , The Hoya, May 19, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Fritz Schaap: Syria needs you - said Matthew VanDyke to himself and drove off , Das Magazin, February 23, 2013. Retrieved on August 7, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b c AFP / coh: Americans train Christians to fight IS , Die Welt, March 2, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Oliver Pickup: US film-maker released after six months in solitary in Gaddafi hellhole jail , The Daily Mail, August 30, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  8. ↑ Sarah Brumfield: APNewsBreak: US rep says writer in Libyan custody , Associated Press, August 9, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ Tara Bahrampour: With Gaddafi dead, Matthew VanDyke, who joined Libyan rebels, finally returns to Md. , The Washington Post, November 5, 2011. Accessed August 7, 2015.
  10. ↑ a b Richard Engel: Filmmaker: 'We were all Gadhafi's prisoners' , NBC, Nightly News, August 26, 2011 (video, 3:09 am). Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  11. ↑ Brian Walker: Freed US journalist visits Libyan prison he was held for 5 months , CNN, August 27, 2011 (video, 0:45). Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  12. ^ Committee to Protect Journalists: Journalist missing in Libya; 1 killed in Iraq , April 8, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  13. ^ A b Rania El Gamal: American fighter makes Libya's war his own , Reuters, October 7, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  14. ^ Peter Beaumont: Anti-Gaddafi troops meet fierce resistance in major assault on Sirte , The Guardian, October 7, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ a b Patrick Schirmer Sastre: Collecting money for the Syrian rebels , Frankfurter Rundschau, August 22, 2012. Retrieved on August 7, 2015.
  16. ↑ Bruce Goldfarb: 'Freedom Fighter' Matthew VanDyke to Film in Syria , Arbutus Patch, July 26, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  17. ↑ a b Geoffrey Ingersoll: US Citizen Fighting For Syrian Rebels Has Been Branded A 'Terrorist' By Assad Regime , Business Insider, November 14, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  18. ↑ a b Johannes Jolmes: "I want to change people's view" , ARD, panorama, October 10, 2013. Accessed on August 7, 2015.
  19. ↑ Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  20. ↑ Stefan Buchen: Pictures of a War , ARD, panorama, October 10, 2013 (Video, 1:25 p.m.). Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  21. ↑ Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution on YouTube
  22. ^ One World Media: Short Film Award ( Memento from May 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , 2014. Accessed August 7, 2015.
  23. ↑ Vimooz: Winners Announced for the USA Film Festival's 36th Annual National Short Film Competition , May 7, 2014. Accessed August 7, 2015.
  24. ↑ Point and Shoot in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  25. ^ A b Bilge Ebiri: Marshall Curry and Matthew VanDyke on Fighting in the Middle East and Directing Point and Shoot , Vulture, April 25, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  26. ^ Adrian Lee: 'A crash course in manhood,' caught on film , Maclean's, April 29, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  27. ↑ Vatche: IFFBoston '14 Jury Award Winners Announced , lonelyreviewer.com, April 27, 2014. Accessed August 7, 2015.
  28. ↑ Will Stephenson, Little Rock Film Festival awards roundup , Arkansas Times, May 19, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  29. ^ A b William Gallo: Foreign Fighter: American Joins Battle Against Islamic State , Voice of America, February 22, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  30. ↑ Christian Schaffer: Baltimore native Matthew VanDyke recruiting army to fight ISIS ( February 25, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive ) , ABC2 News, February 23, 2015. Accessed August 7, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME VanDyke, Matthew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES VanDyke, Matt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American documentary filmmaker and activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland