Laura Flanders interviews filmmaker Joshua Seftel, the director of War Inc., on the boundaries between art and politics, documentary and feature film, and the power of images.

Seftel, who has received more than fifty international awards for his independent films, has documented everything from the plight of abandoned orphans in Romania to the emergence of the senior citizens movement in the United States. Find out why Seftel gave up med school to make films and how his first documentary, a 30-minute homage to a French lit professor at Tufts, led him to Romania and beyond. Since his days at Tufts, Seftel has directed numerous films including the critically acclaimed Ennis’ Gift and Taking on the Kennedy’s. Here he discusses his own battle with dyslexia and how upstart politicians can challenge political dynasties whether they are the Bushes, the Kennedy’s, or the Clinton’s.

Finally, Seftel touches on his most recent project: Still Life. The story told in this film, recently featured on This American Life, raises one of the more challenging aspects of being a photographer or filmmaker. At what point does a photo stop being a photo and start being a human being?

War Inc., what Damien Hirst calls, “Dr. Strangelove for Today,” is in theaters now. Watch the interview with Seftel here on GRITtv.