Over the past 6 years of working in Baghdad, we have preferred to maintain a low profile; given the security situation we found this was the best way of continuing to be able to work. Our students' films have been seen at many festivals and special screenings all around the world, but not in Iraq. We are hoping, however, that, finally, the situation in Iraq is calming down enough for us to mount a festival of our students' films inside the country. We are, therefore, hoping to hold a nine-day travelling festival in Iraq in the autumn/winter of 2010.

There will be screenings on three days in each of three Iraqi cities - Baghdad, Erbil and Basra. We are hoping that our students will be there to hold discussions with audiences. We are also hoping to be able to screen the VPRO documentary about our most recent course. At the moment we are fundraising for this festival.

Kasim Abid, one of the founders of the school, showed his film, LIFE AFTER THE FALL, in a film festival in Khartoum in Sudan and, at the same time also screened IFTVC student films and talked about the school and the thinking behind the project. 

He was approached by the director of the German cultural organisation in Khartoum, the Goethe Institute, and asked if we would consider running a one-off documentary course for them, on the same lines as the courses we run in Baghdad.  We agreed.  The institute acquired the equipment and found the students and the course began in late January 2010.  In the end, there should be 5 or 6 films produced by the students on that course.

We completed our new documentary film course in December 2009.  Our students produced two new films: NA'EEM THE BARBER and A PHOTOGRAPHER'S MEMORIES.

NA'EEM THE BARBER has just won third prize in Student Documentary section of the 2010 Gulf Film Festival in Dubai.

This latest course of ours is the subject of a soon to be completed documentary film made by Shuchen Tan for the Dutch television channel, VPRO.  The film sensitively portrays the situation in which the school is having to operate, the aims, frustrations and victories of the trainers and the personal lives, aspirations and work of the students.

Hiba Basssem's film from our first documentary course Baghdad Days will be shown at the Robert Flaherty Seminar in New York in June 2009.

By the early part of 2007, the security situation in Baghdad had deteriorated to such an extent, that we were forced to temporarily shut down the school, and complete our films in Damascus.

Bit by bit, though, it looked like things were beginning to calm down and we returned to Baghdad at the beginning of 2009. We had to mend all our camera equipment and computers, replace shattered windows and clean out our teaching rooms, which had been occupied by pigeons for a year. We gathered a new group of students together and started our next documentary course in March. The students began their technical training and are researching and formulating their ideas for a new group of documentary films, which we are hoping they will be able to complete in the autumn.

The two co-founders of the school have recently completed feature-length documentaries of their own:

LIFE AFTER THE FALL by Kasim Abid

OUR FEELINGS TOOK THE PICTURES: OPEN SHUTTERS IRAQ  by Maysoon Pachachi

Our students' films continued to be shown throughout 2008: at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco, the Casa Arabe in Madrid, as part of the 'Red Zone, Green Zone' exhibition at Gemak museum in the Hague, and at the British Museum in London as part of its 'Babylon Late' event, in February 2009.

In December 2008, our students' films participated in the Dubai International Film Festival Market and we took part in a panel about film education at the festival.

Some of our former students have gone on to try to make films. Recently, Mounaf Shaker from our first documentary course in 2005, won a prize at the Gulf Film Festival 2009, for his documentary film, Red Zone Citizens.

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.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89408895

http://www.filminfocus.com/essays/crash-course-making-movies-on-print.php

All of our students' films were shown at the House of World Cultures in Berlin as part of the DI/VISIONS Culture and Politics of the Middle East events in January.

In March and April, Kasim and Maysoon travelled to the US to show our students' films and to promote the work of the college in California, New York and Washington DC. 

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 February, 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. IFTVC students won prizes at the festival: in the students' competition, Bahram Al Zuhairi has won the first prize with his film Leaving and Emad Ali has been awarded third prize.

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.

Two films by our students, A Candle for the Shabandar Cafe and A Stranger In His Own Country, are shown in July as part of the Arab Film Festival at BAFTA in London and at FACT in Liverpool.

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.