Christmas in Baghdad

"It promises to be an extraordinary documentary... I hope you will get strong support for this important film."
--Howard Zinn, author and activist

Inspired by the cruel juxtaposition of joyful holiday images and the brutal bombing of Baghdad during "Operation Desert Fox" in December of 1998, production on Christmas in Baghdad was begun in early 1999. Researching beyond the mainstream reporting of events in Iraq to learn about the effects of continued bombing and economic sanctions placed on the Iraqi people since 1990, the film's production team gathered first-hand accounts of life under sanctions from Iraqi citizens, Iraqi Americans, Iraqi refugees recently resettled in the US, activists in the anti-sanctions movement, former UN officials who have lived in Iraq, as well as scientists, government officials and political analysts who have directly investigated the situation in that country. What emerged was the troubling reality that nearly twelve years of the most comprehensive sanctions ever imposed on a sovereign nation had led to the deaths of over a million innocent Iraqi civilians and continued to cripple the lives of those who lived.

Subsequent political upheaval in Iraq has only further complicated the struggles of a people beset by challenges both from outside as well as within their own country.

During production, the most potent images began to emerge from interviews with Iraqi-Americans and Iraqi refugees now living in the US. We decided to focus on several of their stories in order to view the rapidly changing situation in Iraq through a more personal lens. Their poignant recollections of how their own families have lived through the last decade and a half create a portrait of quiet humanity amidst the violence and political rhetoric of our times.

The purpose of this film is to reach into the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans by making stories of the Iraqi people real and recognizable, particularly when the lives of so many of our own loved ones deployed to that region of the world are also in jeopardy. With our two countries embroiled in a war with no end in sight, the need for re-establishing a sense of shared humanity seems more urgent now than ever before. The implications have the potential to touch each and every one of us.

Photo credits: Zachary Fink, Katherine Abdulahad Hansen, Aurelia Winborn.