Product Description

An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the U.S. presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.

American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Winner of Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition, the film also earned the Grand Jury Prize at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar at the 2007 Academy Awards®.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84938 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: Arabic, Kurdish
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Review
If Longley's astonishing feat of poetic agitation has a precedent in the entire history of documentary, I'm not aware of it. --Rob Nelson, The Village Voice

Demands to be seen. . . mesmerizes with its insight and, rarer still, it's beauty. --Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times

. . . a sumptuous, oblique masterpiece that defies expectations in every frame. --Mark Holcomb, Time Out

About the Actor
James Longley was born in Oregon in 1972. He studied Film and Russian at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, was awarded the Student Academy Award in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After working as a film projectionist in Washington State, an English teacher in Siberia, a newspaper copy editor in Moscow, and a web designer in New York City, James traveled to Palestine in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip. The film, which takes an intimate look at the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza, screened to critical acclaim in film festivals and U.S. theaters.

In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq In Fragments, which was completed in January 2006 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded prizes for Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Editing, and Best Documentary Cinematography - the first time in Sundance history a documentary has received three jury awards. Iraq In Fragments went on to win the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the Nesnady + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition at the Cleveland Intl Film Festival, the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at Thessaloniki, and the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

James Longley's short film, Sari's Mother, premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

About the Director
James Longley was born in Oregon in 1972. He studied Film and Russian at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, was awarded the Student Academy Award in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. After working as a film projectionist in Washington State, an English teacher in Siberia, a newspaper copy editor in Moscow, and a web designer in New York City, James traveled to Palestine in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip. The film, which takes an intimate look at the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza, screened to critical acclaim in film festivals and U.S. theaters. In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq In Fragments, which was completed in January 2006 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded prizes for Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Editing, and Best Documentary Cinematography - the first time in Sundance history a documentary has received three jury awards. Iraq In Fragments went on to win the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the Nesnady + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition at the Cleveland Intl Film Festival, the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at Thessaloniki, and the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. James Longley's short film, Sari's Mother, premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.