directors' CVs

Kasim Abid and Maysoon Pachachi, two British-based Iraqi filmmakers, founded INDEPENDENT FILM & TELEVISION COLLEGE in 2004.

Maysoon Pachachi studied Philosophy at University College London (BA Hons) and graduated from the London Film School. She worked for many years as a documentary and fiction film editor in the UK and has taught film directing and editing in Britain and Palestine.

Documentary films as director/ producer:

VOICES FROM GAZA (52 mins) Channel 4 (UK) (producer/editor)
Red Ribbon Award, American Film and Video Festival, San Francisco

IRAQI WOMEN - VOICES FROM EXILE (52 mins) Channel 4 (UK) (director/producer)

SMOKE for Hamlyn Prize winner, Brazilian artist Lucia Nogueira
(co-director/producer/editor)

IRANIAN JOURNEY (83 mins) ZDF/Arte (director)
(First Prize, Kalamata International Documentary Festival, 2000)

LIVING WITH THE PAST: People and Monuments in Medieval Cairo, (52 mins)
ECHO Productions (USA) (director)

BITTER WATER, (76 mins) (Legend Productions/Oxymoron Films)
(co-director/producer)

RETURN TO THE LAND OF WONDERS (88 mins) ZDF/Arte (director/producer/camera/editor)

Kasim Abid holds a Diploma in Arts (Theatre/Cinema Section) from the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad and an MA from the Moscow Film Institute. He has run TV training courses in Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan. For 3 years he was head of Camera and Location Production at ANN (Arab News Network) in London.

Films as director/producer/cameraman

LIFE’S JOURNEY (52 mins) documentary about Iraqi poet Sadi Yusef.
(producer, director, cameraman). Work in progress.

SURDA CHECKPOINT (2005) (30 mins) documentary (producer/director/cameraman)

NAJI AL ALI: ARTIST WITH VISION (one hour) documentary (Audience Award, Best Documentary Arab Screen Independent Film Festival, London 1999, Best Film Award, Basic Trust International Human Rights Film Festival, Palestine/Israel 2000). (producer/director/cameraman)

NANA, super 16 mm documentary feature film for RAG Film International. (cameraman).

THE LITTLE FLUTE PLAYER, short feature film for NBC TV (USA) (cameraman)

JUSTICE FOR JOY (1995) (52 mins) documentary for Channel 4 (UK).
(cameraman).

TASTING FREEDOM (1994) (52 mins) documentary for Channel 4 (cameraman).

IRAQI WOMEN VOICES FROM EXILE (1994), (52 mins) documentary for Channel 4 (cameraman)

AMID THE ALIEN CORN documentary for Channel 4 about 7 Iraqi artists in exile in Italy. (director, cameraman.