We were invited to the US by
Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga,
California as part of their Iraq
Re-frame programme. We showed
several students’ films and took
part in a panel discussion
co-sponsored by Stanford University.
In New York, we held 4 screening and
discussion sessions at Tisch School
of the Arts, New York University,
the Open Society Institute, Columbia
University and the Pomegranate
Gallery. We spoke to the film
department at NYU and have
established a relationship of
support and mentoring with them,
They are providing us with course
books, the loan of a video training
camera and are hoping to provide one
of our students with the opportunity
to study an intensive course at the
university in the summer.
In Washington DC, we held a
screening and discussion at
Busboys and Poets a cafe and
cultural centre. We
also had a meeting at the Kennedy
Cultural Centre about the
possibility of showing our students’
films next year as part of an Arab
festival of the arts.
While in the US, we were asked to do
3 radio interviews and press
publication. If you are
interested, the links to the New
York and Washington shows are below.
In February, Hiba Bassem's film, Hiba Bassem’s film Baghdad Days, was shown as part of the
Tangiers to Tehran: Women Filmmakers
in the Middle East Festival in
London. The festival was sponsored
by the French Institute. In April
it was also shown in Morocco as part
of the Week of Documentary organised
by the French Institute of Fez.
In April, 6 of our students’
films were shown in competition in
Dubai as part of the Gulf Film
Festival. The festival invited the
directors of the films to attend.
Ahmed Jabbar's film,
Dr Nabil, was shown at the London
International Documentary Festival
in April.
Emad Ali's film,
A Candle for the Shabandar Cafe,
will be shown at the Houston
Palestinian Film Festival in May.
Also in May, student films will be
shown at a special screening and
discussion in Vienna.
In July the IPRA Short Film Festival
in Leuven, Belgium, will show
Hassanain al Hani's film,
A Stranger In His Own Country.
We are happy that after all our
students’, and our own hard work,
our films are reaching a wider
international audience. We are also
very grateful to those who have
supported us throughout the first 4
years of our project and to those
new friends who are now offering
their support.
Students’ films at festivals
Since the beginning of 2007, our students’ films have been
shown at various international film festivals, including the
UN Association Film Festival, London, Augsburg Film
Festival, Germany, Women’s Film Festival, Seoul, South
Korea, Iraqi Film Festival, Den Haag, Netherlands,
International Festival of Human Rights, Geneva, Oxdox
Documentary International Film Festival, Oxford UK and the
Arab Film Festival, San Francisco.
Current student films and re-locating
Over the last few months of 2006, it really became clear
that we could no longer operate in Baghdad. There were
explosions near the school, which blew out every pane of
glass in our building, and a mortar attack across the
street, which killed the father of an ex-student. And with
increasing roadblocks, closures and curfews, it became
virtually impossible for students to even get in to the
college for classes. They have, however, managed to complete
shooting their documentary projects and these are currently
being edited in Damascus. We will have to re-locate
temporarily, at least for the next course/workshop, and are
hoping to do this in Damascus.
Emad’s
story
In
January, Emad’s house was hit in a mortar attack. It
was 11pm and the family were asleep in their beds;
Emad’s wife and father were killed and he himself,
suffered burns to his hands and face, and spent 2
weeks in hospital.
Slowly he got back to working on his film about the
Shabandar Cafe, a meeting place for poets, writers
and artists since the 1920s and the only literary
cafe left in Baghdad. It was in Mutanabi Street,
always crowded with people coming to buy books
either from the many bookshops or from pavement
sellers. In early March, there was a massive
explosion there, which demolished the Shabandar and
much of the street – dealing a death-blow to the
cultural life and identity of the city. Emad went to
film on several occasions – interviewing the owner
of the cafe who lost his sons in the explosion and
documenting the wake held for the street by the
poets and artists of the city.
The last time, he was walking to get a taxi after
filming when he was attacked by 2 armed men, who
grabbed the small camera he was using and attempted
to abduct him. Emad saw an opportunity to escape and
made a run for it. He got about 4 metres away before
he was shot in the leg and fell to the ground. The
men walked up to him, shot him in the chest and
drove away leaving him for dead. Luckily, the chest
wound was just a surface one, but his leg was
seriously damaged. Emad lay on the pavement for 20
minutes bleeding – no one went to help him; they
were too frightened. Finally a woman passer-by
stopped a car and took him to hospital. He stayed
there for some weeks while doctors tried to patch up
his leg by grafting bone from other parts of his
body. He is now home, not yet able to walk even on
crutches. A doctor goes to see him every other day
and we are helping to pay for these expenses. The
medical services in Iraq have deteriorated vastly
since the invasion and they were in a parlous state
after 13 years of sanctions anyway.
