Baghdad Film School—Making Movies in Iraq

The voices of ordinary Iraqis have been silenced by years of dictatorship, war, and occupation. In 2004, two London-based Iraqi filmmakers, Kasim Abid and Maysoon Pachachi, set up the Independent Film & Television College. in Baghdad to teach young Iraqis how to tell their stories through film. The college, the first of its kind in Iraq, charges no tuition fees and is funded by international charities (including the Open Society Institute), trade unions, and private donations. Despite the difficult and dangerous conditions in Baghdad, the college’s students and staff have completed 11 short documentary films illuminating ordinary life in today’s Iraq from a perspective missing in the mainstream media.ArteEast and the Open Society Institute hosted a screening of students’ work and a discussion with the college founders.

The Open Forum speaker series aims to enhance policy debate on key issues facing Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East, and to raise public awareness of important developments in these regions. Monthly Open Forum events are held in New York and Washington, DC, and are attended by leading policymakers, scholars, NGO staff, and journalists.FilmsThe following films (trailers above) were shot shot between the end of 2004 and October 2005 by students of the Independent Film and Television College in Baghdad. The college, the first of its kind in Iraq, charges no tuition fees and is funded by international charities (including the Open Society Institute), trade unions, and private donations.
Baghdad Days35 minutes
Directed by Hiba Bassem, 2005Hiba Bassem, a young woman from Kirkuk, returns to Baghdad after the war, to finish her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. The film is a diary of her year as she tries to find a place to live, looks for work, graduates from college, deals with family problems and struggles to come to terms with her position as a woman on her own. This film won a New Horizon silver award at the Al Jazeera International Film Festival in Doha (2006) and a golden award at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival (2006).Hiwar

12 minutes
Directed by Kifaya Saleh, 2005

For years a group of Iraqi artists and writers had wanted to establish a cultural centre in Baghdad. After 8 years of devastating war with Iran, the Gulf War of 1991 and the ongoing sanctions, it was clear that there was no point in waiting for peace. So the Hiwar centre was opened in an old house in 1992 and is now being re-built.

Omar Is My Friend

15 minutes
Directed by Mounaf Shaker, 2005

A student at Baghdad University works as a taxi driver to support his wife and 4 daughters. As he negotiates his clapped out taxi around checkpoints, tanks and traffic jams, he talks about work, lack of petrol, electricity, having daughters in a male-dominated society, his personal aspirations and those of his society.

You can access this page and the films at the following URL:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/mena/events/film_20080325/films