Hometown Baghdad on the Sundance Channel this Thursday night

Hometown Baghdad, the web-based documentary series that I wrote my thesis on, will be making its debut on the Sundance Channel on Thursday March 19 at 11:30pm. It's airing coincides with an important date--the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq. Let's take this opportunity to re-reflect on the costs of war. For international viewers, look for it listed on the National Geographic International channel. I hope to catch it there!

From Chat the Planet's email blast:
"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. The online version of Hometown Baghdad drew over 3 million viewers worldwide when it launched in March 2007. The series won three 2008 Webby Awards, and 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."

Waterfire and the Providence SDS

Last Saturday on the way home from watching Iron Man at the $2 theater, we drove through Providence's acclaimed summer weekend activity: Waterfire.
Waterfire, created by Barnaby Evans, lines Providence's rivers with bonfire sculptures that are lit as a symbol of its renaissance. Held every other weekend, the event brings out tourists and locals alike to enjoy a summer evening downtown.
While we were walking through the city streets looking for somewhere to eat, we met with 20 or so people dancing in the middle of Kennedy Plaza. From a distance, it looked as if a impromptu rave was taking place, but on second glance they were dancing to a homemade speaker sitting in a shopping cart while holding up protest signs. A dancer approached me and handed me a flyer: "Tonight's Waterfire is brought to you by Textron:Your neighborhood Cluster Bomb Manufacturer." It turns out, Textron's headquarters are located a block away from Kennedy Plaza.
The dancers were from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) which has been active in the Providence area since the summer of 2007. Sadly, my phone ran out batteries so I wasn't able to get a picture of them but it surely warmed my heart to see a youth peace movement in action. Having just come from seeing Iron Man, where a pre-transformed Tony Stark naively believes his multi-billion dollar weapons manufacturing company only equips the "good guys," the "Funk the War" dance protest very clearly brought home that weapons manufacturing is not just an issue for the big screen but an every-day reality for even the people of Providence.

photo credit: hlkljgk

Tokyo: Injured Soldiers Exhibit

This afternoon I took the train to Ebisu to visit the "Injured Soldiers" exhibition at the MA2Gallery. Photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, usually known to photograph celebrities and porn stars, powerfully captured the images of 13 wounded Iraq veterans. This photo exhibit is part of larger documentary for HBO called Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq which examines that lives of the newest generation of veterans.
Hung on the stark white walls of the two-story MA2Gallery, the photographs were accompanied by a booklet describing the personal stories of the veterans. Most of them were in their 20s, younger than me, yet by the expressions upon their face I would have assumed they were at least in their 30s. The photographs are simple portraits with all of the subjects looking directly at the camera. Some seemed proud of their battle wounds, others have seemed to have found new meaning in their life, and others seem lost and defeated. As best put by HBO, these photographs/film "puts a face to some of the many soldiers and Marines who've come back in record numbers suffering from severe injuries and trauma, and who, in many ways, have been hidden from the public's view."

The exhibit will continue until the 30th of April. Once exiting the East exit of Ebisu station, continue straight along the main street on the map provided by the gallery (unlike me who took a 15 minute detour...) and you will eventually get there. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday form 12-7pm.