这部纪录片 《蒂姆的战争与和平 O ' brien 由 Aaron Matthews 89, 第五届保利电影系列活动的焦点是什么, 一个免费的讨论系列，邀请在电影和电视领域工作的校友. 在2021年，马修斯获得了奥斯卡金像奖的联合制片人 科莱特, 赢得了奥斯卡最佳纪录短片奖.

这部纪录片聚焦于越战时期回忆录的作者蒂姆·奥布莱恩， 他们携带的东西 和 去找卡恰托, 哪本获得了国家图书奖, 他正试图写15年来的第一本书, 同时在他两个年幼的儿子的生活中也扮演着积极的角色.

4月21日的网络研讨会小组由 罗伯特·阿伯林1962年，艺术外联总监，包括 斯特琳·沃兰德斯，89年，主编 城镇与乡村，  以利亚Sivin保利大学历史系教授 克里斯蒂Hutchcraft，创意写作老师.

马修斯的电影曾出现在国内和国际电视台, 并在全球50多个电影节上展出. 他的纪录片包括， 这篇论文, 非洲的黑豹, 我的美国女孩这些都在PBS的旗舰纪录片系列POV (Independent Lens)上播出.

Aberlin began the evening by asking Matthews how he had gotten O’Brien to sit down with him 和 make himself accessible for filming over the course of five years.

“随着时间的推移，我让他精疲力竭，”马修斯说. It was a year 和 a half after meeting him that O’Brien agreed to have Matthews come with his camera to his Austin, TX回家. 马修斯说他们先建立了友谊. “他让我意识到并警惕一些问题.”

“我是在2014年12月认识蒂姆的,马修斯在小组讨论之前说, ，当时他正在制作美国公共广播公司(PBS)的纪录片 草案这本书研究了美国征兵的历史. A few minutes into my interview with Tim, I started dreaming about doing a documentary on him. 他对所有打动我们心灵的主题都充满了共鸣和诗意, 从战争和婚姻到爱情和死亡. 但他也很不寻常. I remember eyeing the guillotine that was four feet from me during that first interview, 一件来自他表演的大型魔术表演的神器. 然后他给我讲了一个因为算牌被赶出赌场的故事, 而且他一根接一根地抽烟, 所以画面有一种电影般的模糊感. 当我得知他有两个儿子时, would be spending the next few years juggling being an older father with struggling to write ‘one last book,我想, 这是一部好电影的要素.“人们做一些非常艰难的事情的故事很有趣. Plus, it was an opportunity to remove the layers of mystery 和 prestige surrounding artists. We tend to want artists to be these unencumbered geniuses with no families, no money worries, etc. 奥勃良被拖累了. 很多人都有同感. So, 我相信如果我带着相机跟着蒂姆和他的家人, 一个引人入胜的故事就会出现. 它确实做到了.”

斯泰琳·沃兰德斯，89年 回顾这部电影 城市与乡村, said that Matthews “chronicles both the existential angst 和 the daily struggles (see: the credit card scene at the gas station) that follow O ' brien 越战老兵和传奇作家 他们携带的东西, 他正在努力完成他的下一本书, one he believes might be his last—和 the one that will become the legacy of himself he leaves for his two young sons.”  She said she easily could have predicted that her Poly classmate would become a filmmaker. “亚伦是一个典型的学者运动员,她回忆道。, 谁在上课前已经读完了所有的书.

阿伯林提到了最近肯·伯恩斯(Ken Burns)十大网堵平台欧内斯特·海明威(Ernest Hemingway)的纪录片, 观察, “作家和写作并不一定适合拍电影. 你找到了办法.”

Matthews acknowledged that “a writer could be dull sitting around in his underwear writing,而是“蒂姆有动能。, 词汇的新鲜, 眼睛里闪烁着光芒.” He added that O’Brien is “unfiltered” 和 has a “level of c和or” that many people do not have.

“I shouldn’t have been surprised by how much overlap there is between telling a good story on the page 和 on the screen,马修斯提前说,  ，还要了解这种重叠的程度, 当蒂姆努力创造好句子时，我和他在一起, 是一个惊喜. Things like: Exposition kills your story; trust your audience to underst和 your themes; leave room for audiences to bring their own experiences to the material; a scene that is rigidly about one thing is in danger of being a polemic, 和无聊的. 还有这个:你必须在创作的过程中发现你的故事, that in writing 和 filmmaking you’re stumbling along until you find the perfect thing, 你需要为奇迹的发生创造空间. These were some of the many storytelling principles I talked extensively with Tim about, getting to share these principles 和 see the intersection between writing 和 filmmaking was exhilarating actually.”

Aberlin asked Sivin to recall Matthews from when they were in elementary school together. Matthews, he said, was “one of the funny kids,” while Matthews remembers  Sivin as a “smarty pants.”

克里斯蒂·哈克拉夫特说:“蒂姆·奥布莱恩对我来说是一个启示.和奥布莱恩一样，哈奇克拉夫特的父亲也被征召参加越南战争. “O’Brien put a face on something about my father” that she had desired to know more about.

阿伯林问技术主管 查尔斯·波利扎诺P ' 18 播放蒂姆和他儿子们的视频片段. The boys said about their father, “his mood depends on whether he has good or bad writing days.阿伯林问马修斯，他是如何让儿子们如此坦率地发表意见的. 马修斯解释说，他只是用了一个摄像头，并没有打扰别人. 事实上, O’Brien told him that his favorite scene in the film was with his sons because “he learned the most about himself 和 his family.”

Matthews said that the film shows the “pain of writing,” the “torture of the creative process.”

在另一个片段中, O’Brien is leafing through an envelope of scraps of paper on which he has written ideas for chapters of his book. 他将它们描述为“穿过我思想的萤火虫”.”

哈奇克拉夫特说，这个场景“捕捉到了写作的混乱.“奥布莱恩, 当他陷入混乱和写作障碍时, 真的是趴在厨房地板上擦洗. Hutchcraft说，有时候，“混乱”可能是一件好事.

Aberlin asked Matthews how he organized over 100 hours of film 和 condensed it into an hour 和 a half. “Every story is different,” he explained 和 sometimes there is organization to what seems a mess. “The thing you are looking for leads you to the thing you weren’t looking for,” he said.

在另一个视频片段中，奥布莱恩正在给他的孩子们读书. “He was essentially taking time away from his family so that he could give his family a memento after he died,马修斯回忆道. “这让我很震惊, especially since I was spending a lot of time away from my own family in order to make this film. It’s a dilemma most of us find ourselves in with regard to work 和 family — we spend all this time away from the people we love so that we can support 和 spend more time with the people we love.”

阿伯林邀请观众在问答环节提问&这是一个专题，由 艺术总监迈克尔·罗宾逊. 回答十大网堵平台奥布莱恩和战争创伤的问题, Matthews said O’Brien saw “struggling as part of living” 和 that O’Brien was “very open about his own trauma. In bed every night, O’Brien imagines himself falling asleep in the safety of a bunker, Matthews said.

有人问起奥布莱恩那顶无处不在的棒球帽，马修斯解释道, “Tiim owns a ton of hats” 和 his casual dress has become a different kind of “uniform.”

在另一个片段中, O’Brien notes that he is known as a “war writer” 和 will be “remembered for the thing that most haunted me.马修斯说 O’Brien takes pride in his books 和 that many veterans find them relatable. Sivin observed that O’Brien is tough on himself 和 pessimistic even in his peace activism. 马修斯说过 他们携带的东西, the character, who might have thought about dodging the draft, says, “I was a coward. 我参加了战争.”

马修斯希望观众从奥布莱恩身上学到什么? “他对这个国家和他自己都非常诚实,马修斯说, 他对此保持着一种幽默感. 因为这个原因, 他是为数不多的真正的艺术家之一, 诚实的, 并且足够开放，让我们见证他的挣扎. Especially in turbulent times like the ones we’re living in now, Tim makes for a good companion. 每个人都想知道自己并不孤单, 我希望他们在见到蒂姆后能找到某种安慰, 谁在生活中有过各种各样的挣扎,  如果不能完全摆脱这些挣扎, 想办法和他们一起生活. 蒂姆认识到奋斗的价值——活着就是奋斗, 因为奋斗意味着你在乎. 所以它不是我们应该避免的，而是我们应该注意和滋养的.”

”也,马修斯说, “I hope viewers reconsider America’s long fraught relationship to war 和 the military. Tim is wrestling with something we all should be wrestling with:  what it means to live in a highly militarized nation, 参与世界各地的军事行动, 他们的文化和政治都围绕着战争.”

在阿伯林分享的最后一个片段中, Aberlin said that Tim O’Brien summarizes the film in words to his sons: “It’s hopeless, 但是假装它不是.”