More updates! We’ve added the whole lecture series to the website, with topics bringing you from Mesopotamia to Iraq. These talks will provide an opportunity to look at the historical and pre-historical background of Iraq. Irving Finkle and Venetia Porter of the British Museum will give talks on cultural activities in Mesopotamia and the Abbasids, following their curation of the Babylon exhibition. Noorah Al-Gailani will present ‘Three Baghdadi Sufi Mystics, Their Times, and Their Shrines’ and discuss her work as curator of Islamic Civilizations at Glasgow Museums. These lectures and others will take place at Roxy Art House from 14/05 – 24/05 and you can find out more about them by visiting the talks and discussions page on the Reel Festivals website.

We’ve also added more information about the wide variety of films and film related events taking place. There will be a screening of students films from the Independent Film and TV College, Baghdad at Screen Academy on 21st May at 5pm. This will provide a rare opportunity to see work from up and coming Iraqi directors working under extremely difficult circumstances. There will also be a double bill at the Cameo Cinema on 24th May, with Meeting Resistance and Full Battle Rattle screening. These are two very different views of the conflict in Iraq in recent years, with Full Battle Rattle showing US troops preparing for conflict in a simulated Iraqi town, and Meeting Resistance providing an extremely rare glimpse into the lives of the insurgents they’ll face there.

The website is all up and running (thanks to Pixelapes!) so please do have a look around it, and if you happen to be in Edinburgh drop by the festival office at:

Solidarity Goods, 35 Guthrie Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JG.

Also there’s an article about Reel Festivals and the British Council Panel Discussion on the Scotsman Website and in Arabic on the Elaph website, enjoy!