A Film by Shelley Saywell
On the eve of the 2003 U.S. invasion, filmmaker Shelley Saywell traveled to Iraq to film the lives of ordinary people - especially young Iraqis - who were caught between Saddam's tyranny and a devastated economy (for which they blamed the West).
Now, Saywell returns to find the people she met and interviewed before the war. What happened to them? Have they survived? Have their feelings about Saddam and the U.S. changed, or remained the same?
Traveling from Baghdad to Basra, across the severely damaged country, Saywell visits the ruined university campus, the back streets of Baghdad on night patrol, the blood soaked cells of Abu Graib prison, and the mass graves where mothers search for a scrap of familiar clothing.
Surprisingly, Saywell finds all her protagonists. There are surprises, some ironies, and we hear some things that could not be told while Saddam was in power.
But many anti-American feelings remain. Most pervasive is the sense of desperate confusion, the constant worry about what lies ahead in the dangerous, chaotic life under occupation.
This timely documentary reveals a possible future of Iraq, a future in the heart of every 12-year-old. What they've lived through, how they've suffered, and what they dream of will point the way to the future of their country. And in a dangerous region, and a dangerous world, this should matter to all of us.
50 minutes / color / 2003
Sale/video: $298
Rental/video: $75
<http://frif.com/new2003/genx.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>