Alive in Baghdad
Via Truthdig, an amazing site: Alive in Baghdad. It showcases a series of short topical films on life in Iraq, filmed by Iraqis: the lack of electricity, the lives and wounds of car-bomb victims, civilians patrolling their own neighborhoods to protect them from death squads. From the BBC story on Alive in Baghdad:
"Essentially, there's something lost when you send someone from another part of the world, or with a specific audience in mind, to tell another individual's story.
"We are striving to build journalism in the voice of locals, so that people in different parts of the world can communicate almost directly to their audience around the world."
It's like YouTube meets IndyMedia, but without the sensationalism, soundtracks, or less-than-credible claims. Despite the topics, the films are calm and low-key. What's most striking about them to me is how ordinary the people seem. How real and human. It's like you could see them at your local corner store. And I feel I'm learning more about Iraq from watching these than I do in weeks or months of watching and reading the news. Don't miss. Alive in Baghdad.
"Essentially, there's something lost when you send someone from another part of the world, or with a specific audience in mind, to tell another individual's story.
"We are striving to build journalism in the voice of locals, so that people in different parts of the world can communicate almost directly to their audience around the world."
It's like YouTube meets IndyMedia, but without the sensationalism, soundtracks, or less-than-credible claims. Despite the topics, the films are calm and low-key. What's most striking about them to me is how ordinary the people seem. How real and human. It's like you could see them at your local corner store. And I feel I'm learning more about Iraq from watching these than I do in weeks or months of watching and reading the news. Don't miss. Alive in Baghdad.