“The Night Doctrine,” ProPublica’s first animated short documentary, follows the largely untold story of CIA-sponsored night raids in Afghanistan that had an impact on scores of innocent civilians. Produced across three continents, this film is a uniquely creative endeavor—a richly animated investigation, told in the first person by an Afghan-born reporter with deeply personal roots to the story.
When Lynzy Billing was two years old, her family died in a raid in the middle of the night in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. She was the only survivor. Years later, she was adopted by a British family and moved to Israel and the UK, becoming an investigative journalist and photographer. In her twenties, she decided to return home to investigate her family’s tragic deaths—then found herself immersed in a complex investigative crusade about a secretive American-backed program. The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at a dozen more festivals around the world before co-publishing with the New Yorker.
More than a year before the fall of Kabul, Billing began crisscrossing violent swaths of Afghanistan to track deadly night raids carried out by the Zero Units, squads of Afghan soldiers who were funded, trained and directed by the U.S. The raids were often based on disastrously faulty intelligence, resulting in the death of scores of civilians who had no ties to the Taliban.
To uncover the harm, Billing conducted more than 350 interviews, including with Zero Unit soldiers. She used geographical coordinates and satellite imagery to identify raid sites, she traveled to more than 30, interviewing doctors, forensic examiners, eyewitnesses and family members. She’d gotten inside one of the squads and convinced two special forces soldiers to talk to her about the botched raids.
A team of visual journalists across three continents worked with Billing for years to bring her journey to life through a novel approach that interweaves animation, audio and video. We filmed live action interviews and scenes with raid survivors and soldiers in addition to compiling many witness and archival videos. Everything changed when the Americans left the country and the Taliban took over. Our sources were in severe danger and we thought creatively so we could continue telling this essential story without putting anyone in harm’s way. Hence, the more robust animation approach came to be. It was carefully planned to be a blend of incredible editorial rigor and a novel artistic approach. Light and shadow recreate the darkness that veiled these events, immersing viewers in an odyssey through the endless night. Animated transitions metaphorically mirror the journey, highlighting the perpetual nightmare endured by families who struggle to hold someone accountable for the losses.
The resulting work is a deeply intimate tour through what the U.S. wrought during its 20-year war in Afghanistan—a piece that should be studied for what it reveals about the war on terror fought in all our names. A singular feat of artistry, it also brings crucial gaps in law and policy to light.
An exemplary piece of digital storytelling, The Night Doctrine is a work of art that lies at the intersection of film and journalism. It masterfully tackles headline news through a personal lens that is emotional and compelling without being overly sentimental. A story that belies its animation format to become real and gripping in the viewer’s mind.
