A powerful depiction of war in infamous global conflict zones. Directed by Oscar/Emmy documentary makers Buddy Squires and Graeme Scott (know for Sam Smith), this film provides a rare and powerful insight into humanity and hope in the depth of war and the greatest global humanitarian crisis of the last several decades.
Documents a 40-year relationship between Saddam Hussein and the U.S., through accounts given by those who were witness to and participants in those years of violence. It is about a man and a superpower who used each other, in a marriage of convenience between strange bed-fellows. Includes selected archival footage of Saddam's beginnings, filmed to immortalise his exploits, at 20 years of age, in 1959. Includes also images from the film, Saddam Hussein, le maître de Baghdad, directed by Michel Vuillermet (Zarafa Films)
Three women, three wars, one dream. Lanja is a journalist in Iraq fearlessly fighting against honor violence. Maia in Abkhazia battles archaic customs like 'bride kidnapping'. Nelly runs a women's shelter in the slums of Monrovia, Liberia. A universal story of women's courage and survival in the aftermath of war.
Three film-makers travel to Iraq to film the ongoing crisis in which ISIS forces are trying to take over the country. The film-makers speak with locals, military, police and other media outlets to get their opinions on the crisis but it's the voices of the children which often goes unheard, so the film-makers listen to the children, and find out their views on the crisis.
Rafea: Solar Mama follows the groundbreaking journey of one Bedouin mother living on the Jordan-Iraq border who, along with thirty illiterate grandmothers from around the world, will travel to The Barefoot College in India to become Solar Engineers. (TIFF)
A priceless tablet of Gilgamesh, the oldest and most important work of literature is stolen from a museum. A security guard vows to do whatever it takes to get it back from a group of smugglers. Along the way, he faces his own inner demons.
Hundreds of Western volunteers have joined Kurdish armies in Syria and Iraq in their efforts to fight the Islamic State. What drives some Canadians to put their lives on the line?
As the forces of ISIS and Assad tear through villages and society in Syria and Northern Iraq, a group of brave and idealistic women are taking up arms against them—and winning inspiring victories. Members of “The Free Women’s Party” come from Paris, Turkish Kurdistan, and other parts of the world. Their dream: To create a Democratic Syria, and a society based on gender equality. Guns in hand, these women are carrying on a movement with roots that run 40 years deep in the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey. GIRL’S WAR honors the legacy of Sakine Cansiz, co-founder of the PKK who was assassinated in Paris in 2013, and reflects on the sacrifices made by all of the women in the movement, who have endured jail, rape, war, and persecution in their quest to liberate their lives and sisters from male dominance. With scenes of solidarity, strength, and love amongst these brave women soldiers, GIRL'S WAR is a surprising story of Middle Eastern feminism on the front lines.
Controversal documentary focusing on events in Afghanistan in 2002 in which Danish soldiers handed over prisoners to the US Army even though USA no longer treated prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention. Further, the film questions the Danish Prime Minister's reasons for getting Denmark involved in the so-called War Against Terrorism in Afghanistan in the first place.
VIETNAM: AMERICAN HOLOCAUST exposes one of the worst cases of sustained mass slaughter in history, carefully planned and executed by presidents of both parties. Our dedicated generals and foot soldiers, knowingly or unknowingly, killed nearly 5 million people, on an almost unimaginable scale, mostly using incendiary bombs. Vietnam has never left our national consciousness, and now, in this time, it has more relevance than ever. Claiborne documents the Whitehouse fabrication of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and further, raises the question of whether JFK was assassinated to promote the Vietnam War. Martin Sheen, who played the leading role in Apocalypse Now almost 30 years ago, has generously lent his powerful voice to this actual history of the War in Vietnam.
Iran, January 16th, 1979. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees after being overthrown. Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and proclaims the Islamic Republic on April 1st, 1979. In the same year, Saddam Hussein seizes power in Iraq and, after several border skirmishes, attacks Iran on September 22nd, 1980, initiating a cruel war that will last eight years. Since its outbreak, correspondent Saeid Sadeghi documented it from its beginning to its bitter end.
September 2016: Stacey Dooley embeds herself on the frontline with the extraordinary all-female Yazidi battalion, who are fuelled to take revenge against the so-called Islamic State. As the battle to take Mosul from ISIS advances in Northern Iraq, in this extraordinary film for BBC Three, Stacey finds these young women's lives have been transformed by a desire to avenge their loved ones who were murdered by Isis.
Examines the unfolding chaos in Iraq and how the U.S. is being pulled back into the conflict. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and military leaders, the film traces the U.S. role from the 2003 invasion to the current violence, showing how Iraq itself is coming undone, how we got here, what went wrong, and what happens next.
Ten families read letters from their loved ones killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in this powerful and moving HBO documentary by Oscar and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Couturie (Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam). Photos of the soldiers in military and civilian life are shown as family members read the final correspondence received from Iraq and share their thoughts and memories about the fallen troops and the realities of war.
JERABEK is an intimate portrait of one family that confronts the tragedy of war. Ryan Jerabek wanted to get out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, see the world and do something different. Moved by what happened on September 11th, the honor student and varsity athlete joined the Marines and left for boot camp weeks after his high school graduation. Nine months later, he was killed in Iraq. The film chronicles, over two years, the changes in the lives of his family. Beyond politics, headlines and statistics, JERABEK offers a candid, personal look at the toll one death takes.
Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over.
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
In the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, Fakhir, a father of eight, is serving in the Iraqi army. All around him, he sees innocent civilians getting injured by landmines, so he determines to disarm them with his own hands, using just a pocketknife and some wire cutters. He clears thousands of roadside bombs, mines and car bombs, knowing that every time he cuts a wire it could cost him his life—which he seems to find less important than the lives of others. In 2014, by this time having lost a leg, he starts working for the Kurdish Peshmerga, disarming boobytraps left behind by Daesh in and around Mosul. An enthusiastic home video maker, Fakhir collects hundreds of hours of footage of his day-to-day work.
Fidelis Cloer is a self-confessed war profiteer who found The Perfect War when the US invaded Iraq. It wasn't about selling a dozen cars, or even a hundred, it was a thousand-car war where security would become the ultimate product.