In the summer of 2003, Margaret Loescher was a film student in England and her father, Gil, was going about his academic work. He'd been a professor at Notre Dame in the United States and at Oxford University in Great Britain. His topic? Humanitarian aid.
Never the armchair academic, Gil Loescher was in Baghdad, meeting at the United Nations headquarters, on the morning of Aug. 19. He and his friend and fellow human-rights scholar, Arthur Helton, of New York University, had just sat down with the U.N. staff, including envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. They had just begun to talk when a bomb-laden truck hit the building.
Twenty-two people died, including everyone who had been in the meeting with Gil Loescher. He alone survived. He survived with a scarred face, a mangled hand — and with both legs amputated.
Margaret Loescher brought her camera along when she and her mother and sister flew to be with her father in a hospital in Germany. It seemed second nature to her to bring her camera along. She didn't use it much, however. Not until she knew he was going to live.
Then came scenes of triumph. She filmed her father as he learned to use his artificial legs. She filmed him when he came home to Oxford and shimmied up the stairs to lie in his own bed again.
Eventually Margaret Loescher's brother-in-law, Daniel Chalfen, helped her produce a documentary about what had happened to her dad. The film is called "Pulled From the Rubble," and it will play Saturday as part of the Amnesty Film Festival, presented by the Salt Lake Film Center and the City Library. Chalfen will come from New York to discuss the film after it is shown.
Chalfen spoke with the Deseret Morning News by phone and said "Pulled From the Rubble" has played in film festivals and human rights film festivals in the United States and around the world.
Commercial distributors were interested in it at one point, Chalfen said. However the 64-minute length was too short, and Margaret Loescher was reluctant to revisit the painful topic in order to make it longer. (The 64-minute film had originally been financed by selling an early 15-minute version to ABC's "Nightline.")
"It's a very universal story about a very tragic situation," Chalfen said. Sadly, such traumas happen daily in many parts of the world, he added. We need to be reminded of the individual lives being lost and twisted.
In fact, the viewer is often amazed at the bravery and the joy the Loescher family displays. The only sad scene, really, is the poignant moment when Gil hears, being read to him, a report from one of the paramedics who helped to save him. The paramedic reported starting an I.V. to ease Gil's pain. And then Gil asked if he was going to live to see his family again.
The paramedic wrote in his report that Gil said he had a wife and two daughters. At this point in the film, when Gil hears his own words, he puts his arm over his eyes and begins to sob. His wife throws herself across his chest and sobs as well. The camera hits the floor and stays there as the entire family gives in to grief.
One of the questions Chalfen will no doubt be asked by his Salt Lake audience is what Gil Loescher is doing now. The answer: He is still researching and writing and lecturing on the topic of refugees and human-rights violations and humanitarian aid. And he has not become an armchair academic, Chalfen said. In fact, Gil Loescher will soon visit refugee camps in northern Thailand.
If you go . . .
What: "Pulled From the Rubble," Amnesty Film Festival
Where: Salt Lake City Main Library Auditorium, 210 E. 400 South
When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m.
How much: Suggested donations, $7 general, $5-$7 seniors/students (some free seats available)
Phone: 524-8200
Web: www.amnestyusa.org
Also: A variety of films will be shown tonight, Saturday and Sunday; see Web site for schedule and film descriptions.