Medea BenjaminOccupation Watch (2003)

In the aftermath of the Iraq War of 2003 a coalition of peace and social justice groups saw the need to form a center that, in partnership with Iraqi civil society, would keep track of the US occupation of Iraq. This piece is an effort to show a Western audience the realities on the ground in Iraq and to show the need for a center within Iraq that could provide them with ongoing information to be able to critically evaluate the occupation.

This piece is made up of footage collected by two members of founding group Code Pink, Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy, as they travel with Nermin Al-Mufti and Iman Khamas in 2003. They talk with angry Iraqis in the street, cautious academics in cafes, enterpeneurs providing do-it-yourself electricity to their neighborhood, US soldiers on patrol, an economist describing the sell off of infrastructure to foreign companies. We see protests by women's groups for security, weeping families describing deaths of loved ones, open sewers, bombed out buildings and long gas lines.

(c) Code Pink

This item is part of the collection: Iraq War: Peace Movement

Producer: Medea Benjamin
Production Company: Alchymedia
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Iraq; Middle East; War
Contact Information: gael@codepinkalert.org http://codepink4peace.org/

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Credits

Executive Producer ... Medea Benjamin
Edited by ... Chris Belcher, Alan Bushnell, Brian Drolet, Gael Murphy
Camera ... Gael Murphy, Occupation Watch Baghdad
Effects ... Robin Bell
Music ... Peter Van Allen Jr.