Return to Dhaka
Written on Qatar Air Flight#344 from Doha Dennis and I had been married for just a few weeks when we landed in Dhaka with our film crew in November 1998. Like I am now, we were working on a global health story, and we planned to spend a couple weeks in Bangladesh and then travel to South Africa for more filming and our honeymoon. As we made our way to rural villages and documented women walking for days to reach health clinics, our driver played a constant high-speed game of chicken with the brightly decorated buses and trucks that filled the narrow streets. The sense of doom was so great, that every day we were still alive, I began to feel more invincible than ever—-refusing at times to even wear a seat-belt. While we focused on filming, everyone else was paying attention to the nation’s favorite pastime: cricket. A big… LEARN MORE
Where Monsters Can Grow
To help start a conversation about the connection between ignorance and hatred, “Teaching BEYOND BELIEF” (written by Columbia University Teachers College) includes this poem: WHERE MONSTERS CAN GROW Beware of the monstersWho dwell in the mind,Who grow in the shelterOf shadows they find. Beware of the demonsWho hide from the light,Who only surviveWhen our spirits lose sight. Those creatures can thriveWhere our knowledge is low;They fill in the spacesOf what we don’t know. Beware of the monstersThat cause us to hate,To strike out in angerWhen we can’t relate. For ignorance darkensThe mind and the heart,And helps all our monstersTo tear us apart. But learning and thinkingWill strengthen us soWe won’t be the placesWhere monsters can grow.
Principle Voices: Sean on his upcoming Fulbright scholarship
Our producer Sean Flynn received a Fulbright scholarship last month, which he will use to travel to India and produce a documentary about life in Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in Asia.The reason that I chose to apply to the Indian program specifically is that, prior to joining Principle Pictures, I’d spent two months backpacking around India with a friend of mine. I was totally enchanted and mesmerized by the country. It was a life changing experience on a lot of levels – one of those things that really made me start opening my eyes to the world. Even though I had already been thinking about getting into documentary film before that, traveling through India really cemented that decision for me. I wanted to bring stories from other cultures and other parts of the world to American audiences.Looking back on that two-month trip, I feel like I was just… LEARN MORE
Introducing Myself: Lara Sitruk
After working here for three weeks, I feel part of the PP-family. I’m up to date with most of the projects everybody is working on and the pile of plans for future projects which keeps growing. Common characteristics among my coworkers are ambition, interest in the world and the constant laughter that fills the office every day. I moved to Boston from the Netherlands and arrived way too overdressed at my first day of work, thinking American companies are very professional and formal. Principle Pictures is professional, but more informal, which creates a very cozy, fun and motivating atmosphere in which to work!Kevin Belli, Principle Pictures’ Senior editor, dragged me to the premier of ‘Jane Eyre’ at the MFA-museum after my first day of work, where we had just missed the President of the United States who was in Boston for a special event. That same week I got to… LEARN MORE
Principle Inspirations: Poetry from Mary Angelino
Mary Angelino has been named one of 2010′s best new poets. Helping My Father Write His Father’s Eulogy Instead of uneducated, write immigrant,instead of mason – artist with brick and stone.If you say worked hard, alwaysfood on the table, you won’t need to say poor. He’d want the Pslam read firstto get it out of the way. End with the timehe drove to that mansion,the fence as white as a rich man’s teeth, Just to show you the tile rooftop,blue as a thousand passportscut from the sky. Another of her poems, “Refugee,” is beautiful and heartbreaking. She presents it at this reading: Principle Inspirations is a new blog series that features those special things that makes us laugh and cry — the things that motivate and inspire us. We hope you’ll share your stories with us, too.
Remembering Geraldine Ferraro
One of my earliest memories as a journalist is of covering Geraldine Ferraro’s visit to the University of Rhode Island in 1989 after she’d become head of the new Int’l Institute for Women’s Political Leadership. I drove my white Fiero to the event which was held in the mold-infested campus auditorium where faded maroon-and-black carpet was made even less favorable by the low-watt florescent lighting. With me I brought a Marantz pmd430 tape recorder, a microphone, and three packs of extra batteries–all stashed in my tan Liz Claiborne bag. After positioning the mic on its stand, angled precisely to the height I imagined Ferraro to be, I seated myself directly to what would be Ferraro’s right. I imagined her right-handed, and, therefore, prone to looking right. I’d be sure to make eye contact, and be more likely to persuade an interview backstage. As I moved left to sit, something under… LEARN MORE
Mass Humanities Awards Grant for BEYOND BELIEF Education Campaign
Good news from the Massachusetts Foundation for Humanities! We’ve been awarded a grant to get BEYOND BELIEF and its new curriculum/study guide (written by Columbia University Teachers College) into the hands of teachers and students. In fully funding our grant proposal, Senior Program Officer Hayley Wood says, “I can think of few more appropriate ways to learn about 9/11, focusing not on the horror of the event itself, which may not be the most appropriate approach for young people, but learning about the event more tangentially, through the choices of people who were directly affected by the tragedy.” Now that we’ve been awarded the grant, we can’t wait to spend it! The $10k will accomplish a lot. In collaboration with our partners—Teachers College and its innovative development division Edlab, Primary Source, Educational Collaborative of Greater Boston (EDCO), and Beyond the 11th, we will hold a series of professional development workshops… LEARN MORE
In Defense of Malalai Joya’s Visa Application
Almost three years ago to the day, Malalai Joya and I were bundled up in our winter coats walking through Boston Common, discussing Afghanistan. Joya hadn’t been back home in a while—she is always cautious about returning to Afghanistan, afraid she will put her parents’ and siblings’ lives in danger. Not to mention her own. As a vocal women’s rights activist who has since been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Joya has survived five assassination attempts and countless death threats. But here in Beacon Hill with her slight frame and oversize coat, she was unrecognizable, blending in with the cities’ college kids while carrying a Canadian passport with a 1978 birth date printed inside the maple leaf cover. As we took pictures in front of the State House, Joya’s smile was hidden by her long, dark hair that the wind swirled around her face…. LEARN MORE
Hello, Denver!
Barbara Bridges and her extraordinary Women+Film Festival know how to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day! I’m here in Denver for a screening of BEYOND BELIEF and a fundraiser for our 10th anniversary of 9/11 national outreach effort. (All the while eating what is most definitely too much movie popcorn and enjoying beautiful French films like POTICHE starring Catherine Deneuve and QUEEN-TO-PLAY, Kevin Klein’s first French-speaking role). I am struck today by David Brooks’ NYT editorial about our over-confident nation. As Americans, we’re collectively self-indulgent and the accolades we expect don’t match our merits. As Gerald Chertavian, founder of Year Up, told me this week, “There is no free lunch. If you’re not willing to work your ass off, then you can’t expect access or opportunity.” Yet, lots of people do. And they want compliments, to boot! Not surprising then that a recent study shows college students would… LEARN MORE
Ironweed Film Club Features BEYOND BELIEF
Ironweed Film Club is a subscription-based club that delivers progressive-themed, independent documentaries to your door every month. Members receive one-of-a-kind DVDs with though-provoking, honest, quality films that are hard to see outside of the festival circuit. Each month a film (or films) are distributed based on a theme. Our film BEYOND BELIEF is featured this month on the theme of FORGIVENESS. Check out Ironweed, and start your own film club right in your living room!
Nicholas Kristof on What Oman Can Teach Us
In his New York Times column today, Nicholas Kristof writes about the benefits of books over bombs. He suggests that America’s strategy for crushing extremism by using force may not be the best possible solution. He uses Oman as an example – a country that, only 40 years ago, was as tribal and traditional as its neighbor, Yemen. Oman, however, did not become the hotbed of Al Quaeda terrorism that Yemen has – in large part due to an emphasis on education for both girls and boys. Read Kristof’s article about his travels and observations.
Love Stories of Iraqi Widows
After a love story that lasted 10 years, one minute was all it took to lost my husband. The number of widows resulting from the last three decades of conflict in Iraq has grown to more than a million. Iraqi women tell their stories of the loves they once had and the difficult lives that were left behind. Razan Othman Mohammed, 29-year-old worker in Baghdad Back in 2008, my husband, his orphaned relative – who was only five years old – and I were caught up in a bomb explosion at the market. When the medics came to our rescue, a suicide bomber strapped with explosives set off another bomb. I lost consciousness at that moment and my body was full of shrapnel. My husband died of his injuries on his way to the hospital and the orphaned child was badly injured. He is now disabled and no longer able… LEARN MORE
Susan Retik Honored by President Obama
It was so exciting! I had no idea that I would be called out… Susan Retik emailed me today after President Obama made special mention of her at a White House ceremony during which she was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for her work with Afghan widows. It’s the second highest honor that can be bestowed on an American citizen. “Susan Retik’s husband was killed when his plane was flown into the World Trade Center on September 11th. And nobody would have blamed Susan if she had turned inward with grief or with anger,” President Obama said. “But that isn’t who she is. So instead, she and another widow started Beyond the 11th, and this is a group that empowers Afghan widows affected by war and terrorism. And Susan says,’These women are not our enemy.’” The pride at Principle Pictures is twofold. We are ecstatic that Susan is being recognized… LEARN MORE
In her first life, Sonali Kolhatkar was testing software for a NASA space telescope. That was before she turned to radio or to social and political activism for women in Afghanistan. Now, in addition to being the host and producer of KPFK Pacific’s popular morning drive time program Uprising, Sonali is also the Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a US-based non-profit solidarity organization that funds the social, political, and humanitarian projects of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Sonali’s blog, Love and Subversion (shared with her Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, Jim Ingalls), encompasses both current political topics and specifically the topic of Afghan women. It includes information about the Afghan Women’s Mission and RAWA – the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
Afghan Girls Brave Taliban Threats
Girls continue to fight for their right to education by attending secret schools – yet the threat to their lives is still very much a concern, even in secrecy.
We’re on the Move!
When Kevin and I return from Iraq, we’re coming back to our new office in Boston. Plymouth has been our home since I founded the company in my basement over 10 years ago. There’s a lot of pride, countless memories, and a ton of tapes packed up in that U-Haul that’s making its way up I-93 North today! So thankful to everyone who made it happen — Sean, Alyssa, Beth (Balaban), Kate, Danny, Jim (Sean’s Dad), Alyssa’s Dad, Andrew, and Dennis!! You all completely and totally rock!
Stray Cats Wanted
Our upscale community on the banks of the Tigris River is peaceful. Safe. Protected on all sides with only one way in. Or so we thought. River rats don’t need to show their badges to the Peshmerga guards at the checkpoint. When they’re in the mood to get away, they just wade through the sewers and find a squat toilet to claw up through. The plump one that ran in front of my path on its way from the family room to the bedroom looked right at home. Yes, it had definitely vacationed here before. Nose to tail this rat was at least a foot long. Threat advisory level: Red. First order of business: Shoes. Kevin and Carmen jumped off the ping-pong table, trading in their paddles for a baseball bat and squeegie. Since there were no other weapons available, and the rat hunt needed to be documented, I took… LEARN MORE
Electricity Revolution
Next to me on the couch is a plastic bag filled with samoon, the eye-shaped Iraqi bread that Umm Muhammad brings every morning—warm and soft. Now it is hardened from sitting in the hot sun all day. There’s a baseball bat resting nearby—put there by Carmen, a foreign correspondent and our housemate, who uses it to smack the flat bread over the front yard wall. On the other side, it lands with a soft thud, momentarily enveloped in a burst of dust. Even though Jadriya is the most exclusive area of Baghdad—it’s where President Jalal Talabani lives—the streets are dirt and littered with trash. And the electricity is out, again. From my seat on the living room couch that’s been moved outside, I can’t see the children playing on the street beyond the wall, but I can hear them—their shouts muffled by the constant hum of generators. “Generator city,” our… LEARN MORE
A) Magic Wand B) Bomb Detector C) Magic Wand Bomb Detector D) None of the Above
Every day people tell us to be careful. That’s because every day the bombs going off across the country make it into the news. Many of them are in Baghdad. Most of them are car bombs. Just today 27 people were killed. Officials have known for a very, very long time that stopping car bombs is a top priority. That’s why they invested in expensive bomb detectors, and outfitted every checkpoint with them. When I say expensive, I mean more-than-the-price-of-your-car-expensive. They’re between $20,000 and $60,000 a pop. And when I say every checkpoint, I mean the roadblocks that are set up about every ten feet or so. Seriously, it’s hard to go more than a minute without encountering a checkpoint. That means every car driving through the city has dozens of opportunities to be sniffed out for TNT and other explosives that will turn the vehicle into a deadly inferno…. LEARN MORE
Blog V Doc
These stories I’ve been sharing — and will continue to share — from the road often have very little to do with the actual subject matter of the documentary we’re filming. That’s intentional. I don’t want to give the whole story away, and I’m contractually obligated not to! Filming here has all the highs and lows I enjoy about the roller coaster filmmaking business itself. The common wisdom among journalists is to come in wanting 100%, expect 75%, and settle for 50%. Good thing I came in wanting 200%, so now I only have to settle for 100%. We’re filming every day, and so is a local crew we’ve hired. They are incredibly hardworking and talented, and the cameraman’s back story is fantastic. Remember when the guy hucked a couple shoes at President Bush when he visited Baghdad at the end of 2008? Yasser, our local cameraman, is the guy… LEARN MORE
Sights and Sounds of Baghdad
The desert knows me well, the night and the mounted men.The battle and the sword, the paper and the pen. – Abul Tayyeb al-Mutanabi Ever hear a new sound — one you’ve never heard before but you know you’ll never forget? It happened to me once in Etretat, thanks to the shingle beach. The new sound then? Water crushing the small stones. And it happened to me again today, thanks to a coffee vendor who turned his two porcelain coffee cups into castanets while walking up and down Mutanabi Street. Central Baghdad’s Mutanabi Book Market — it’s named after a classical Arab poet, so it’s not surprising that this is considered the intellectual capitol of the city. Scholars, students, soldiers and shopkeepers come to buy and sell magazines, maps, magnifying glasses, prayer beads, video games, stuffed animals, and–of course–books. There aren’t too many women around, but men are hanging out… LEARN MORE
Kurdistan’s Rappin’ Baby ‘Bama
It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and 18-year-old Kayan is just emerging from his bedroom. It was another busy all-nighter for this Kurdish musician – writing lyrics for a new rap song about life in Iraq. Terrorist, Kayan’s first political song, was the way he channeled his anger and sadness when a friend’s father was killed by militias in Baghdad. He hasn’t decided on a title for this new song yet. “It’s about wishes and askin’ God to bring me back to a day when I can fix things,” he says. “I don’t know how much I remember, but I’m gonna spit some.” When Kayan sings, his waifish frame is typically in constant motion—a loose silver wrist watch sliding up and down his undulating arm, black dress shoes tapping below well-pressed jeans. This kid is definitely talented, and he carries himself with an endearing confidence. “I brought hip-hop and rap… LEARN MORE
Agony of De-Feet
Good thing Kevin brought all those anti-inflammatories… Not a good day for our driver, either. This happened on the streets of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan (in northern Iraq) just before he was pulled over by the cops for an illegal turn. We’re heading back to Baghdad first thing in the morning where, ironically, it may feel a bit safer.
I Think We’re Going to Need a Bigger Tunnel
The trip to the military’s media social should have taken about 5 minutes. But since the bus transporting us (17 international journalists) couldn’t fit through Slayer Tunnel, we enjoyed the 45-minute scenic tour through Baghdad’s Victory Base Camp… past the True Value Hardware store, Paris Boutique and bowling alley… alongside the never-ending rows of concrete T-walls… and, finally, a right onto Vigilant Road toward the opulent Al Faw Palace and “the juicer” (see picture below – don’t you wish you had a massive orange?). As I met and mingled with our military’s impressive key leaders and senior staff on a beautiful deck overlooking Saddam’s “Water Palace,” a band (whose sole purpose is to increase morale around the country) played hits from the Eagles and Pink Floyd, and some guys hit golf balls into the lake. Our conversations were interrupted by this request: please bow your heads, the chaplain will now… LEARN MORE
