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Saving the Iraqi Jewish Archives: A Journey of Identity

Logline:
More than a rescue against time...It's a rescue OF TIME

Brief Description:
In 2003, over 20,000 Jewish religious, cultural and personal artifacts, stolen from the Iraqi Jewish community as it fled persecution, were discovered at Saddam Hussein’s secret police headquarters in Baghdad by US soldiers. Today, Iraqi Jews are spread throughout the world and struggling to keep these items, now called The Iraqi Jewish Archives, safe and accessible so their story is not wiped from history. This documentary brings you face to face with these last remnants of a people whose 2700-year bittersweet journey of identity, forever bound to the land between the rivers, may have reached the point of no return.
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"Saving the Iraqi Jewish Archives" (2020) is a journey to rescue the identity of Iraqi Jews. Through the voices of the community itself, spread throughout the world, we bear witness to their struggles surviving ethnic cleansing and preserving the heritage for future generations to know and celebrate.

These refugees had to leave Iraq, by law, with nothing; no documents, no photographs, no Torahs, no prayer books. In fact, no religious articles of any kind were permitted out of the country like kiddush cups, Seder plates and candle holders.

This is a story of miracles. First, a miracle that led to finding and restoring the archives after an unexploded bomb severely damaged where they were kept as told by the discoverer. Second, that among the religious documents were handwritten notes of one of the leading Rabbinical scholars of the early 20th century, the Ben Ish Hai. Third, we learn the Iraqi Jewish Archives contain records from the last remaining Jewish school in Iraq. One student even finds a school transcript with his picture from so long ago, proving his very existence in Iraq.

The film journeys deeper so we understand that all of the cultural and religious artifacts of Jews from Arab Countries are at risk of being returned to countries that ethnically cleansed these Jews. Further, this is also happening to other ethnically cleansed minorities right now! What will be left for these Iraqi Jews and other ethnically cleansed people to prove they ever lived in these countries? What will they have to show their grandchildren? It’s a question of when, not if, this history could be erased.

Co-Directors: Carole Basri & Adriana Davis
Executive Producer: Carole Basri
Production Company: D-Squared Media NYC
Editor/Producer: Adriana Davis
Co-Writers: Carole Basri & Adriana Davis
Genre: USA Documentary Feature Film 2020 (TRT 56:30)
Format: HD Video (available streaming and DVD)
Production Elements: HD/SD archival and interview footage, voice over, original Iraqi Jewish themed music, motion graphics, archive images

Website: www.SavingIraqiJewishArchivesFilm.com
Contact:
Adriana Davis adavis@dsquaredmedia.com 917-705-3499
Carole Basri cbasri@yahoo.com 917-822-2447

  • Carole Basri
    Co-Directors
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad
  • Adriana Davis
    Co-Directors
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, A Grand Idea, What's for Lunch
  • Carole Basri
    Co-Writers
  • Adriana Davis
    Co-Writers
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, What's for Lunch, A Grand Idea
  • Carole Basri
    Executive Producer
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad
  • Adriana Davis
    Producer
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, Play It By Ear, Kill Johnny Mills, A Grand Idea, What's for Lunch
  • Adriana Davis
    Editor
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, Like A Springsteen Song, A Grand Idea, What's for Lunch
  • D-Squared Media NYC
    Production Company
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, Play It By Ear, Kill Johnny Mills, What's for Lunch, A Grand Idea
  • Adriana Davis
    Director
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, A Grand Idea, What's for Lunch
  • Carole Basri
    Director
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad
  • Adriana Davis
    Writer
    The Life of Frank Iny, Searching for Baghdad, The Last Jews of Baghdad, What's for Lunch, A Grand Idea
  • Carole Basri
    Writer
  • Members of the Worldwide Iraqi Jewish Community
    Key Cast
  • US State and Defense Department Officials
    Key Cast
  • Israeli Ambassador to the UN
    Key Cast
  • Directors of Leading Sephardic Jewish Community Organizations
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    History, Archival, Advocacy, Profile, Personal
  • Runtime:
    56 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 4, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    60,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada, Hong Kong, Iraq, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    HD Video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • 23rd Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
    New York, New York
    United States
    Scheduled screening on March 17, 2020 postponed due to Covid-19
    Official Selection
  • 24th Miami Jewish Film Festival
    Miami, Florida
    United States
    April 15, 2021
    Florida and Southeastern US Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Adriana Davis, Carole Basri

Biography of Co-Directors: Carole Basri & Adriana Davis

Since 1995, Carole Basri and Adriana Davis have collaborated to Co-Direct and Produce a series of seven films about Iraq’s Jewish community. They include: “THE LIFE OF FRANK INY” (1999), “SEARCHING FOR BAGHDAD” (2002) and “THE LAST JEWS OF BAGHDAD” (2005) all of which have screened at over 80 premiere film festivals in the US, Canada, Israel and Europe and were featured on PBS Affiliates (MetroArts 13) and Jewish Life Television (JLTV). The Directors, though from differing backgrounds, combine their knowledge of the Iraqi Jewish community with experienced filmmaking techniques.

Ms. Basri, an American attorney descended from prominent Iraqi-Jewish families, was a member of the U.S. State Department’s “Future of Iraq” Project and the Coalition Provisional Authority, with the Iraqi Reconstruction Development Council (IRDC) for Ambassador Bremer in Baghdad. She is a visiting professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law and Pericles Law School. She has been an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University Law School creating the first in the world LLM in Corporate Compliance and Pennsylvania Law School. She is the author of several legal treatises including Corporate Legal Departments (PLI), International Corporate Practice (PLI), eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel (Thomson Reuters West), Corporate Compliance Practice Guide: The Next Generation of Compliance (Lexis) as well as two casebooks Corporate Legal Departments and Corporate Compliance (Carolina Academic Press). Ms. Basri received a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

Ms. Davis has worked in film, television and radio as a writer, producer, editor and voice-over artist since 1991. She is the founder of D-SQUARED MEDIA a full-service production company based in New York City with corporate and film clients. In addition to documentaries, Ms. Davis has produced several narrative films including the romantic comedy, “PLAY IT BY EAR” starring Academy Award® winner Rita Moreno, a noir thriller “KILL JOHNNY MILLS”, a murder mystery "LIKE A SPRINGSTEEN SONG" and a short documentary on the NYC school lunch program "WHAT'S FOR LUNCH" for the festival circuit. She is currently in production on a new documentary, “A GRAND IDEA”, memorializing one man's quest to mount a Broadway production of his own Yiddish version of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." Prior to founding D-Squared Media, she was as a Production Manager and Assignment Desk Editor for BNN-TV, A&E, CourtTV, ESPN, BET, MTV, NBC's Dateline, History Channel among others with numerous award winning (TELLY, CINE GOLDEN EAGLE) production credits including "LIFE IN A WAR ZONE", "BABY BEAUTY QUEENS" for A&E's Investigative Reports and "GENERATION H - National History Day" for the History Channel. Ms. Davis has a B.A. from Catholic University in Political Studies and a Producing Certificate from The Hollywood Film Institute.

Together, the Directors have released their current feature length documentary “SAVING THE IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVES” (2020)following the fate of over 20,000 Iraqi Jewish religious and cultural artifacts, discovered in the basement of Saddam Hussein’s secret police headquarters. The future of the Iraqi Jewish Archives, as they’ve come to be known, parallels the very existence of the worldwide Iraqi Jewish community.

Website: www.SavingIraqiJewishArchivesFilm.com
Contact:
Adriana Davis adavis@dsquaredmedia.com 917-705-3499
Carole Basri cbasri@yahoo.com 917-822-2447

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Statement of Co-Directors: Carole Basri & Adriana Davis
Logline: More than a rescue against Time...It's a rescue OF TIME

Starting in 1952, after mounting persecution and outrageous restrictions, over 160,000 Iraqi Jews began escaping their ancestral homeland of 2700 years. From that time through the end of the 20th century, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government, under color of law, began stripping Iraqi Jews of their property, including religious and cultural artifacts, personal records, photographs and correspondence. Ever resilient, the Iraqi Jewish community survived, in adopted homes throughout the world, but they believed these items, proof of their very existence in Iraq, had vanished forever.

We have spent over 25 years producing documentaries about this community’s history and culture, interviewing hundreds of Iraqi Jews throughout the US, Canada, UK, Israel and Asia. In the beginning, it was difficult convincing them to relate their unique and tragic stories. For nearly 50 years most hadn’t even told their own children about living in and escaping from Iraq. However, once they did, we felt our resulting films told their story fully. We were wrong.

In 2003, a few courageous individuals, with the cooperation of the US military, ventured into the basement of Saddam’s secret police headquarters in Baghdad. There they found and rescued nearly 20,000 confiscated personal and religious artifacts, some dating back to the 1600’s as well as the records from the last Jewish school in Iraq – The Frank Iny School. Severely damaged, they were shipped to the US for a 10-year restoration process. Today, not all the material has been made available to the Iraqi Jewish community and worse, the US and Iraqi governments have agreed within the next year to return the entire Archives to a politically unstable Iraq. If this happens, there will be little hard evidence for the community to prove they ever existed in Iraq and certainly nothing to cling to for future generations.

With this new and important milestone in the Iraqi Jewish story, we knew it was time for another film with a dual purpose: tell the story of the Archives, but also revisit the lives of those who’d trusted us to present their stories over the last 25 years. Part advocacy piece, part historical documentation, for this film we relied on the personal meaning attached to items that verify our very existence: birth, marriage and school records, religious books and artifacts, family photographs, and, most importantly, each person’s right to possess them.

When the community decided to speak out publicly, in our previous films, it was with trepidation; but they realized it was the only way to put their lives on the record. Today, they speak with one amplified voice to Save the Iraqi Jewish Archives for their descendants whose ancestry is forever linked to the land between the rivers. With only five Iraqi Jews left in Iraq, now it is crucial.

As filmmakers, we bring a varied perspective to our productions: one an Iraqi Jewish American Attorney who has travelled to Iraq and the other an American TV/radio Producer and Editor of Italian Irish ancestry raised Roman Catholic. We call it taking an inside/outside perspective of the community to bring the story to as diverse an audience as possible.

We hope viewers of this film are inspired to take action that will keep these Iraqi Jewish Archives safe, but also motivates their own personal journey of identity to preserve, protect and pass along their stories. As more than one character in our film says, “Your children are your present, but your grandchildren are your future.”

Since 1995, Carole Basri and Adriana Davis have Co-Directed and Produced a series of seven films about Iraq’s Jewish community. They include: “The Life of Frank Iny: A Granddaughter’s Journey”, “Searching for Baghdad: A Daughter’s Journey”, “The Last Jews of Baghdad: End of an Exile; Beginning of a Journey” all of which have screened in numerous film festivals worldwide and on US Public Television.

Website: www.SavingIraqiJewishArchivesFilm.com
Contact:
Adriana Davis adavis@dsquaredmedia.com 917-705-3499
Carole Basri cbasri@yahoo.com 917-822-2447