Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

My film, My Stretch of Texas Ground, has already done what I wanted, which is: given me a catharsis; a catharsis from the anguish I felt from knowing what my government has done since 9/11, which is kill millions of human beings. Regular, ordinary people, just like you and me, except perhaps for being browner, and instead of going to a church, going to a mosque, except, in my case, I don't go to either.  

But, the point is that my film does what I intended it to do; it exposes the war crimes of the U.S. government. And it's out there now. It's like the genie out of the bottle. There's no putting her back in, and there is no getting rid of my film. 

Recently, I showed you how the charge that we used a regular house in L.A. to represent Tunisia is bogus. It was no regular house. It was magnificent. It was a sprawling compound. And it was built by a Moroccan architect to Moroccan standards and design. 

I received this from our Arab cultural adviser, who knows about the stupid ridiculous charges. 

"Ralph, I’ve been to all three countries of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. They make what is called in Geography and contemporary history “The Maghreb”. Before we started production of My Stretch of Texas Ground, I suggested to the Director that Abdul Latif Hassan be from
Algeria or Tunisia as many of those who joined ISIS in "The Levant" (Syria and Iraq) were from those countries."

RC: Note that we took his advice. In the story, Hassan is originally from Algeria, but he makes his home in Tunisia.

"I am sure that most of these people who criticize the film’s House location, and probably all of them, have never been to that part of the world. And, as the great Cinematographer Jack Green (nominated for an Academy Award many times for his work with Clint Eastwood) once said as we were shooting in the California desert for the Iraqi desert: “This is not a movie about a Door” when the director kept complaining about the different house door styles of Iraq in comparison with the one we had on set...
Well, My Stretch of Texas Ground is not about Abdul Latif Hassan’s house... it is about Terrorism and the root causes of it...
Just giving you an insider’s take.
Best,
Anouar H. Smaine
Director | Producer | Actor

RC: And that is a really good point. After all, who goes to a movie in which the lead character says,

"When they bombed a restaurant in Baghdad trying to kill Saddam Hussein, they killed children. When they bombed a wedding party trying to kill the Taliban, they killed more."

Who, after hearing THAT in a movie, complains that he didn't like the house?