Baghdat Burning! September 1–30, 2007

THE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS: THE PSA PROJECT 1-15

The PSA Project is a series of fifteen short films that speak out against the American­led invasion and occupation of lraq and the act of war itself. PSA means Public Service Announcement which is a non-commercial advertisement, ostensibly broadcast for the public good. The main concept is to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about special issues. By taking up the authoritarian tone of this propaganda tool. Cynthia Madansky's films interrupt the lulled US-media landscape with a provocative protest against the US led war in lraq.

FREEZONE

UK| 2005, 35 mm, Renkli/ Color, 90' |İngilizce-İbranice-Arapça; Türkçe altyazılı / English-Hebrew-Arabic; Turkish subtitles

Director: Amos Gitai

Cast: Natalie Portman, Hanna Laslo, Hiam Abbass

Amos Gitai's pragmatic solution to the Middle East dilemma begins in Jerusalem, in front of the Western wall and heads for the "Free Zone" in eastern Jordan, a completely peaceful economic heaven with no customs duties or taxes. Rebecca, an American who has been living in Jerusalem for a few months, has just broken off her engagernent. She gets into a cab driven by Hanna, an lsraeli. But Hanna is on her way to Jordan, to the "Free Zone'.

MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

ABD / USA| 2006| DVD, Renkli/ Color, 90'| İngilizce-Arapça; Türkçe altyazılı / English-Arabic; Turkish subtitles

Director: Laura Poitras

Cast: Dr. Riyadh

2007 Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

Working alone in lraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of lraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyedh, an lraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni polltical candidate. An outspoken critic of the Occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish democracy in lraq, arguing that Sunni participation in the January 2005 elections is essential. Yet all around him, Dr. Riyadh sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence.

THE PRISONER OR: HOW I PLANNED TO KILL TONY BLAIR?

Almanya , ABD / Germany – USA| 2006 | Digibeta, Renkli/ Color, 72'

Cast: Yunis Khatayer Abbas

In an absurd comedy of errors, a freedom-loving lraqi jounalist is mistaken as Tony Blair's would-be assassin and sent to Abu Ghraib Prison where he discovers the true meaning of liberation. Following up on an incident Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein actually witnessed during the filming of Gunner Palace, the two directors vividly and imaginatively render the misadventures of Yunis Khatayer Abbas.

IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS

ABD/ USA| 2006 | 35 mm, Renkli/ Color, 94' | İnglizce-Arapça-Kürtçe; Türkçe altyazılı / English-Arabic- Kurdish; Turkish subtitles

Director: James Longley

2007 Nominated foran Academy Award for Best Doctumentary Feature

A work in three parts. lraq in Fragments offers a series of intmate, passionately-fell portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing lslamlc law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming.

THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER, 2005

UK |DVD, Renkli/ Color, 90' | İngilizce-Arapça; Türkçe altyazılı / English-Arabic; Turkish subtitles

Director: Andrew Berends

The Blood of My Brother goes behind the scenes of one Iraqi family's struggle to suıvive amidst the camage of the growing Shia insurgency. Nineteen-year-old lbrahim dreams of revenge when his brother Ra'ad, an lraql portrait photographer, is shot and killed by an American patrol. The documentary is harsh in its visual composition with scenes of fighting and death on the streets of Baghdad.

RETURN TO THE LAND OF WONDERS, 2004

UK |DVD, Renkli / Color, 88' |İngilizce-Arapça; Türkçe altyazılı / English-Arabic; Turkish subtitles

Director: Maysoon Pachachi

Not long after the US invasion of lraq in 2003, filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi returns to her home city of Baghdad after 35 years. She accompanies her father, 80-year­old Adnan Pachachi, who is returning to head the committee responsible for drafting lraq's temporary Constitution and Bill of Rights. We follow this tortuous process, with arguments over wording changes demanded by US leaders in Washington and compromises made to satisfy lraqi sectarian interests.