Mon., March 23, 2009, 7pm Resistencia Bookstore, casa de Red Salmon Arts, 1801-A South First St.

Red Salmon Arts and Indy Media (Houston) present Beyond the Walls: The Battle for Iraq’s Future: a film screening and discussion with special guest Rick Rowley of Big Noise Film. We have elected a new president, but the war in Iraq is not over, hundreds of thousands of our troops and contractors are still on the ground, and Iraq is still occupied and in ruins. The neo-cons are out of power, but the battle for Iraq’s future is far from over.

With over 1 million Iraqi dead, 4 million refugees, 4,000 dead American soldiers and a total cost of 1-4 trillion dollars, the war in Iraq remains the most important fact of American politics, but it has faded from the headlines. The scraps of television coverage that still make the news don’t go far beyond US military press releases and Iraqi politicians interviewed inside the Green Zone.

Beyond the Walls is a collection of short films from the other side of the blast shields in Iraq’s walled cities. Beyond the Walls covers a very different side of the war than is ever seen on American screens. It reports unembedded from war-torn Falluja, from the giant US prison at Umm Qasr, from the Mehdi Army stronghold inside Sadr City – from the places where mainstream corporate channels can not or will not go.