Kasim Abid

A full-length documentary of 80 mins duration, shot intermittently over 12 years, observational in style and experimental in form, explores life on two residential streets in London and Baghdad.

On the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, ‘Mirrors of Diaspora’ explores themes of exile, creativity, identity and war told through the lives of seven Iraqi artists living outside the country of their birth for close to half a century. The artists featured in this documentary belong to a group known as ‘Iraqi Artists in Exile’. Filmed over three decades, this ambitious project explores their challenges, failures and successes, both as artists and in their private lives: from the time they graduated from art school in the 1970s, working as street artists in the piazzas of Rome and Florence, to becoming well-known. The central question the film poses is: what are the consequences of spending most of one’s life in exile? At a time of unprecedented global migration when barely a day passes without a tragic story played out in the international media, ‘Mirrors of Diaspora’ contributes to greater understanding of one of the defining issues of our time.

The filmmaker films from his window in three cities (Ramallah, Bagdad and Erbil) : the ballet of men and machines also tells a story of resilience.

Life After the Fall is a unique insight into modern day Iraq, eloquently portrayed by Iraqi director Kasim Abid, who returned to his native country shortly after the fall of Saddam following an absence of 30 years. Shot over five years, this film shows the director reuniting with his family in 2003. They had survived dictatorship, war and sanctions and were ready for change.

The road between between Surda and Ramallah is used by over 60,000 residents of 35 villages as well as by thousands who commute between Ramallah and Birzeit University in the West Bank.It is here that one of the early checkpoints was set up by the Israeli army in March 2001.The film observes various stages in the life of this checkpoint, its growth from a mound of earth placed across the road to a series of cement barriers that have to be squeezed through, to its removal in July 2003. Using only observational footage and very few captions, Surda Checkpoint allows us to take in to daily experience of what it means to have one’s life disrupted, one’s path obstructed, one’s schedule delayed by hours of waiting.

Between 1969 and 1999 over 1000 died in police custody in Britain. In this controversial documentary four women fight to find out how their own loved ones died. Each family is met with a wall of official silence and the film documents how they unite and challenge this together. The documentary uses powerful exclusive footage filmed over a five year period and witnesses the families' pain and anger at the killings.

In july 1987 palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali was shot by unknown assassin. this documentary traces his life and work from his birth in Galilee to his death in London it examines the forces that shaped Naj Al Alii as an artist and as a human being and shows how his experiences mirror of other exiled palestinians.