On Sunday June 28, 2009, a Iraqi cultural event takes place in Delft, The Netherlands. The event is organised by the Iraqi Social and Cultural Society of Delft, Iraqi Democratic Youth Union Netherlands, the Iraqi Women’s league and the Nyama Foundation. Dutch people can familiarise themselves with Iraqi culture. Iraqi’s will wear their traditional clothing and will perform folk songs and dances, like chobie and debka. A well known Iraqi singer, Wisaam Ayoeb, will be performing at the event as well, accompanied by an ancient instrument called the Alsatoor.
Furthermore, Iraqi items and photographs from Iraq will be exhibited and Iraqi dishes will be served. The activities will take place between 12:00 h and 18:00 h. Location of the event is Sardinoweg 169 in Delft.
The Iraqi Social and Cultural Society organises several activities throughout the year. Its objectives are to raise awareness of the Iraqi cultural heritance and the current events in Iraq, the celebration of National holidays, to establish arts and sports committees and to organise activities especially for women. The society is based at Wijkcentrum De Hofstee in Delft, The Netherlands.
Marlijn Klerk | 25-06-2009 | 1:43 pm
Take a look at the pictures Shuchen Tan and her film crew made while they were visiting the Baghdad Art Academy and Baghdad Filmschool in Iraq. Check out the photo’s on Flickr.com. We’ll be introducing each of the filmstudents on this blog to you soon!
Marlijn Klerk | 24-06-2009 | 10:44 am
Take one city, split the citylife in 24 hours, and capture each hour in a one minute film. The result is www.cityoneminutes.org an initiative from Holland Doc editor in chief Hansje van Etten and Jos Houweling, director of the One Minutes Foundation. Cities from all around the world can be seen on the interactive website, and more films are added every day.
The artist Anne Verhoijsen, who made CityOneMinutes in Cairo, was planning to travel to Baghdad to do the same thing there. She later decided not to go, but her friend, the musician Sattar al Saadi (born in Baghdad, living in the Netherlands since 15 years), did go and is doing his best to film, which is not easy because of the security situation. Anne is keeping us up to date on Sattar’s adventures on her weblog. (more…)
Warda Sharif (Holland Doc) | 16-06-2009 | 1:09 pm
In a quest to find out more about Iraqi youth in the Netherlands, I came across IDJUN (Iraakse Democratische Jongeren Unie Nederland, translation: the Iraqi Democratic Youth Union the Netherlands) an organization that brings the young Iraqi people living in the Netherlands together, regardless of their ethnic and/or religious background. I wanted to know more about this ambitious group and decided to meet with the president and treasurer, Huda Al Kurmanji and Marwa Khediar. The interview can be read below.
What is IDJUN?
IDJUN is the Dutch branch of Iraqi Democratic Youth Federation (IDYF) in Baghdad, which was established in 1951 in Baghdad by a group of enthusiastic Iraqi youngsters from all different backgrounds to create unity and strife for more freedom and a better future. IDYF now has 13 branches in Iraq. The branch in the Netherlands was established in 2001 by a group of young Iraqis living in the Netherlands who were involved with IDYF in Baghdad. The board that is active now is the third board with members from different backgrounds. Democracy is the basis of the organisation and is present in our daily activities, decision making, our presentation to the outside world and in opinions. We want to contribute to the social intercourse in society and create unity across ethnic and religious differences. (more…)
Warda Sharif (Holland Doc) | 16-06-2009 | 9:26 am
Tomorrow, the 10th of June, the Arab Film Festival will be openend by the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb. This will be the 9th edition of the Arab Film Festival, which is organised every year to screen films made in the Arab world or by Arabs living in the West. Besides movies, short films and documentaries, there will be debates with filmmakers, journalists and producers about ‘drama and cinema technique’.
Iraqi productions are also shown on this Festival. One is the documentary 80/82 by Hameed Haddad about what happened between the years 1980-1982 between Iraq and Iran. This documentary will be shown at Thursday 11 June at 1.30 pm. The other production is Iraq: Open Shutters by Maysoon Pachachi, one of the founders of the Baghdad Filmschool. Her film is about a project that brought Iraqi women from five different cities in Iraq to Damascus, the capital of Syria, to take part in a photography project called Open Shutters. These women learned the basics of the photography process and shot photo-stories about their lifes. This film will be screened Saturday 13 June at 4 pm.
The Festival ends the 14th of June. For the program of the Festival visit the site filmindebuurt.nl
Warda Sharif (Holland Doc) | 09-06-2009 | 2:39 pm
“For years the victims were little more than statistics to the outside world [..] now we can put names to the nameless, turn statistics into stories and ask..Will it ever happen again?”
This is the topic in ‘Inside Iraq: Living with the Enemy’, a documentary aired last weekend on CNN’s World Untold Stories. The documentary is about what happened during the sectarian violence in Baghdad. Gunmen and militias forced their own neighbors out of their houses and were responsible for thousands of random abductions and killings.
Besides heartbreaking stories of victims who have lost their loved ones and are still looking for their bodies, this documentary also shows the story of a former gunman, who speaks about ‘cleansing’ his neighborhood with other gunmen, because the situation was ‘kill or be killed’. According to a doctor in this documentary 70% of Iraqi’s have suffered psychological trauma as a result of the war. Because there are no centres that deal with trauma, refugees, orphans etc. he thinks that these people will eventually turn against society, because society did not help them. Although the streets in Baghdad are calmer, the consequences of what has happened are still deeply rooted. With killers walking around freely and the bereaved wanting revenge, it remains to be seen if the cycle of violence and hatred will come to an end.
The documentary can be watched online (3 parts). You can also watch the ‘Back Story’ wherein Arwa Damon, the filmmaker, tells about her experiences in making this report.
Warda Sharif (Holland Doc) | 04-06-2009 | 11:08 am
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