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Friday, March 28, 2003 - 7:30 PM
(doors open at 7:00PM)

SALAAM Theatre
Geeta Citygirl, Artistic Director
presents a screening of

Bridge to Baghdad:
A Youth Dialogue

As war continues in Iraq, we feel it is imperative to share this historic youth dialogue between young New Yorkers and young Iraqis with as many audiences as possible. While we watch the atrocities of war in horror, we support the need to keep the lines of communication open between the people of the United States and Iraq.  "If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."  - Mohandas Gandhi

Traditional Q&A and reception with wine, soda and light snacks to follow.

SALAAM Theatre @AAWW
16 West 32nd Street - 10th floor
Between Fifth Avenue and Broadway
Manhattan, NYC

Admission: $5 minimum suggested donation
Nobody will be turned away due to lack of funds!!!
Reservations not required but recommended.
Phone: 212.330.8097
Email: rsvp@SALAAMtheatre.org

The Event:
On Saturday March 1st, while world leaders met behind closed doors, 6 young Americans and 7 young Iraqis stepped forward to participate in a historic dialogue.  At Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) in a loft in lower Manhattan and at the Orfali Art Gallery in Baghdad these youths were able to transcend time zones and national borders to speak freely as peers with the help of satellite technology.

The Participants:
World-renowned documentary filmmaker Jon Alpert and his team traveled to Baghdad weeks before the satellite conversation in search of the true voice of Iraqi youths. After struggling against the many demands of the Iraqi Ministry of Information, Alpert managed to assemble a group of young Iraqis willing to speak openly about their lives, their families, and their opinionsævoices rarely heard in American media.

What's more, Alpert was able to film their lives intensively the entire week before the show, creating unique video diaries of each of the Iraqi participants. In these stirring cinema verite pieces, the full life of a young Iraqi citizen is revealed as Saif, 21, shows the camera the steel metal doors his parents recently installed throughout his house for fear that the American soldiers would be coming "door by door" or when Hamsa, 22, takes the viewer around her home, now empty as the furniture has been sold off for money in order for them to survive. Walid, a 17-year old alienated teenager, shows us the blank wall where his army officer father tore down his rock and roll posters and later gives us a concert with his heavy metal band.

These riveting seven individuals were joined by an equally diverse group of American faces and opinions including a former army soldier, the head of an anti-war student movement group, a first-generation Korean immigrant, and the son of a conservative Lutheran pastor.

The Conversation:
As the inheritors of the good and bad consequences of their leaders' decisions, these youth were anxious to discuss anything and everything directly with their peers. The dialogue lasted for ninety minutes and covered the Backstreet Boys and the realities of traditional Muslim dating practices to the larger, pressing realities of a possible war, failing UN inspections, and the absence of free media and public dissent in Iraq. When asked about Hussein-imposed restrictions on their lives, Aisha, a beautiful 20-year old aspiring clothes designer, expressed frustration in not being able to choose her own career path (she now studies computers) and Suha, the fiery Hajib-wearing young Muslim, spoke enthusiastically about her deep-seated (but unobtainable) desire to visit Washington, DC. American panelists like Katrina, 22, who entered the dialogue adamantly against the war left the conversation with new considerations. She was surprised to find that the Iraqi youths seemed to align her anti-war stance to an implicit support of the Hussein regime. "I am so used to being the crazy liberal...and this shifted the spectrum a whole lot for me," said Baker when joined by the other American panelists in a filmed debriefing after the satellite feed. Other panelists expressed similar wonderings as the conversation brought new nuance and empathy to issues usually reported and explained by those many years older than themselves. "All I could think was they were just like me," one American audience member stated repeatedly after the show.

The Struggle to Broadcast:
In the three weeks since the taping of the Bridge to Baghdad youth dialogue, the producers from DCTV and NextNext Entertainment have struggled to find a television outlet in order to offer American audiences the chance to hear the voices and opinions of their own youth and the youth of Iraq on the war. They were turned down by every major television broadcaster in the country.

SALAAM Theatre is proud to present a screening of this historic dialogue.

Bridge to Baghdad is a co-production of

and

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SALAAM is a not-for-profit professional theatre company celebrating South Asian American artistic excellence through creative risk-taking and experimentation that challenges all boundaries, connects all peoples and links all the arts.

Geeta Citygirl, Artistic Director
SALAAM  (South Asian League of Artists in AMerica)
http://www.SALAAMtheatre.org