Sundance Channel on Iraq

By Anna Brew

I thought you all might be interested to see that the Sundance Channel just launched a website in observance of the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The highlight of the site is a large collection of webisodes and clips from two documentaries that will premiere on television on March 19th (the date of the 2003 invasion): Hometown Baghdad and Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Both films capture the day-to-day realities confronted by Iraqi citizens. I'll paste more information about each film below.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/iraq

HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD

Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi's Heavy Metal in Baghdad follows the
heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam in 2003 through
the nightmare of the 2006 insurgency and into their new lives as
"heavy metal refugees." Moretti and Alvi, who are the chiefs of VICE
Films and VICE Records, established a relationship with Acrassicauda
when it was profiled in VICE magazine in 2003; they began their
efforts to film the band in 2005, when their company sponsored an
Acrassicauda concert at a Baghdad hotel. Heavy Metal in Baghdad is
their feature directorial debut. In a review of the New York Times,
Nathan Lee called the film "an intrepid, unlikely and altogether
splendid feat of D.I.Y. reportage. ... this rock-doc like no other
electrifies its genre and redefines headbanging as an act of hard-core courage."

Acrassicauda has been featured in the NYTimes and Fox News ... and
they've seen some attention from Metallica

NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/arts/music/03metal.html?hp

FOX NEWS "Iraq Band":
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&stream...

ACRASSICAUDA MEET JAMES HETFIELD OF METALLICA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H10xNf1J9Q

HOMETOWN BAGHDAD

Hometown Baghdad follows three Iraqi college students based in Baghdad as they try to maintain a semblance of normal existence amidst the escalating violence and chaos around them. Expanding the acclaimed 2007 online series of the same name, directors Hawes, Hillis and Turkey deliver a visceral portrait of the war's toll, interweaving their chronicle with footage from their subjects' frank video diaries.

The online version of Hometown Baghdad was created and produced by
the New York-based Chat the Planet and drew hundreds of thousands of
viewers worldwide when it launched in March 2007. The series won
three 2008 Webby Awards, in the categories News and Politics Series,
Public Service and Activism, and Reality. In an article about the
online series for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pop culture critic
Cary Darling wrote that the series' scenes of ordinary lives "offer a
glimpse into a society few knew existed: young Iraqis who are clinging to a global, middle-class identity while the world around them crumbles into chaos."