Yeah the Lebanon stuff was a bit silly, really, and risks boring people completely for the sake of a joke.
Agreed, I unintentionally found myself tuning out during the intro as it felt like a rushed oral report in an undergrad class. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't notable either. Attempting to tie it to the film narrative felt misplaced and out of left field anytime it was mentioned.
With a good editor (one that could break out the tracks, drop the source footage music from the project, and drop new music in to go with the tone and flow) the film could have great impact. Music creates mood/tone or complements it or destroys it... in this case I actively tried to tune most of the music out as I found it to somewhat obscure the seriousness of certain points.
This film needed to be made, and while it isn't perfectly polished or up to certain standards the importance of the prevailing message is not diminished.
I hope to see more from The State based on what I have seen on their site.