People are getting killed, daily, even hourly! Since you and this "film maker" choose to ignore that fact, all your other whinging is worthless noise. If I had explained that, in 1944, Tokyo was being bombed by the US Army Air Force, would it have clarified things? Silly me, assuming that you know grade school history.
If you don't understand the difference between travelling to an enemy's land during wartime, and travelling to land occupied by the US military and its allies, then I can't help you. Yes, there was an insurgency, but it was not in all towns, and it was certainly not illegal for people to go there and see for themselves. Before the insurgency heated up, you had all kinds of people going to Iraq and travelling around, writing about the experience. You had Iraqi expats returning, journalists (Michael Yon, Mark Steyn), people looking for business opportunities, and this guy, a film maker. You had American contractors all over (remember Fallujah?), and last I heard, no one blamed them for being in Iraq during an insurgency, said they shouldn't have been there, and that if they got picked up and sent to the can for 55 days, it would be their fault.