Fifth of Five-Part Series with Montalvo Arts Center
We join three Iraqi artists to discuss the challenges of filmmaking in present-day Iraq. Maysoon Pachachi and Kasim Abid, who set up the Independent Film & Television College in Baghdad in 2004, will show and discuss clips from their students’ films. This will be followed by a screening and discussion of producer Fady Hadid’s Hometown Baghdad, a documentary web series that follows the lives of young Iraqis struggling to survive during the war.
Prior to the Aurora Forum, from 6:00-7:00, Kasim Abid will show clips from his film, After the Fall, a documentary that tells the story of his large, multiethnic family in the years after the fall of Saddam.
IRAQ: REFRAME is an innovative series of visual, performing, and media arts at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga through April 2008. The Aurora Forum is pleased to join with the Montalvo Arts Center to present five public conversations with scholars, artists, and journalists whose engaged knowledge of past and present conflicts in the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization will reframe our understanding of current circumstances.
KASIM ABID Kasim Abid is an Iraqi filmmaker who worked
for three years as head of Camera and Location Production for ANN (Arab
News Network) in London. His films include the award-winning Naji Al Ali: Artist With Vision, and Life After The Fall,
a new documentary about his family's experiences in Baghdad in the
years since the American invasion. He has also taught television
training courses in Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan. He earned a diploma
from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and an MA from the Moscow
Film Institute.
MAYSOON PACHACHI Maysoon Pachachi is a filmmaker and film
editor of Iraqi origin who has taught filmmaking courses in Britain and
Palestine. She has directed several award-winning documentaries,
including Iranian Journey, Bitter Water, and Return To The Land Of Wonders. She is finishing Open Shutters Iraq,
a documentary about Iraqi women and girls who learn photography in
order to tell their own stories. Pachachi holds degrees from University
College London and the London Film School and is a founding member of
Act Together: Women's Action for Iraq.
FADY HADID Fady Hadid is a member of the Najeen Group,
an Iraqi artists' initiative that supports and produces theater, art
and films. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Information and
Communication Engineering from the University of Baghdad. He is
currently working on a number of film and television productions while
studying filmmaking at the University of Southern California.
KRISTINE SAMUELSON (moderator) Kristine Samuelson is a professor in the
Department of Art and Art History at Stanford where she is department
chair and serves as the director of the Film and Media Studies
Program. She has also been an independent film producer for more than
twenty-five years.