Dartmouth professor and Iraqi-born Sinan Antoon kicked off Arab Awareness Week on the Hill yesterday with a showing of the documentary "About Baghdad," which he co-directed.
Students packed into the Olin Building to view the 90-minute documentary, which commented on Iraq under both Saddam Hussein's regime and the American occupation.
"There's so much anger and violence," Antoon said in describing his native country. "It's like a Frankenstein - now it's being stitched together in a very haphazard way."
The documentary, which he jokingly referred to as a "propaganda film," featured an assortment of interviews with Iraqi citizens.
"As activists and grad students, disgusted by the way the war was being represented, [we] felt compelled to show the people in Iraq," Antoon said. "I wanted to show the diversity of Iraqis."
As the film began, a collection of comments from anonymous filmmakers appeared on the screen. One of the comments described the documentary as "a collage of interviews collected three months after the fall Saddam Hussein's regime."
Along with street interviews, the film displayed the destruction and ruins of buildings across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. "[The occupation] is something you could say we've gotten used to but we didn't know it would be this harsh," Iraqi Huda Askar said in the film.
With regard to interviewing Iraqi citizens, Antoon said he found a variety of opinions on the American presence. "How would [America] feel were a country to come and invade them?" Askar said.
Other Baghdad citizens, however, said they viewed America as a better alternative to Hussein's regime.
Many of the interviewees spoke of their desire for complete independence and democracy. The film displayed graffiti on a street wall that read, "Iraq will be ruled by Iraqis."
After the showing of his film, Antoon spoke of his filmmaking experience and his thoughts on the future of Iraq.
Antoon said that although he was against the American occupation while filming the documentary, the goal was to show all sides. "We wanted to keep ourselves open as much as possible to the diversity of views," he said.
The documentary is scheduled to be screened around the world, and has already been shown twice in Beirut. "In the Arab world they had different reactions, saying [to us], 'You focus on Saddam too much [and are] airing out our dirty laundry.'"
According to Antoon, the filmmaking crew faced many dangers while interviewing Iraqis on the street - both on behalf of American Government Issues and Iraqi citizens. "There was a lot of harassment from the U.S. soldiers," he said. "Already while we were there things were falling apart. It's a risk just to buy groceries."
Antoon also engaged in conversation about the future of American soldiers and presence in Iraq. "Of course I'm against the occupation," he said. "The best solution would be to internationalize the conflict. Iraq should be handed over to an international body."
He specifically derided the present American administration and their past handling of Hussein. "It is insulting that [Paul] Wolfowitz and [Donald] Rumsfeld go and visit the mass graves while U.S. troops were only a few minutes away [when the murders happened]."
The next Arab Awareness Week event will be belly-dancing lessons in Stratton Hall tomorrow night.
