Tuesday, March 24, 7 p.m., UT campus, Flawn Academic Center auditorium (FAC 21)

“Beyond the Walls: The Battle for Iraq’s Future” – a screening and discussion with Rick Rowley, Big Noise Films. Though U.S. news media have reduced their coverage of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, understanding the conflict is as crucial as ever for U.S. citizens. Independent media such as Big Noise Films help fill that gap. Filmmaker Rick Rowley will screen three short films that originally aired on Al Jazeera English.
The films are:

• “Beyond the Wall: Inside the Sadr Movement in Iraq”: Moqtada al Sadr and his militia, the Mehdi Army, have been America’s most intractable opponents in Iraq. But after attacks launched by the U.S. and Iraqi military against Sadr strongholds, cease-fires were negotiated and the Mehdi Army melted away from the streets. Has the Mehdi Army been defeated, and is this the end of the armed Shiite resistance to the occupation?
• “Re-awakening Saddam’s Tribal Strategy”: After four years of bloody insurgency in Iraq, the course of the war changed abruptly when America formed an alliance with a confederation of Sunni militias known as the Awakening movement. But is the U.S. just re-empowering the same tribal elite Saddam used to run the country? And will it lead to long-term stability?
• “The Detention Imperative: An Inside Look at the U.S. Detention System in Iraq”: Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been detained by the U.S., 1.5 million Iraqis have had an immediate family member detained, and almost every Iraqi knows someone who has been through the U.S. detention system. Few American institutions affect the lives of ordinary Iraqis more directly and profoundly, and once Iraqis are swept up in the system, there is no clear way out.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Senior Fellows honors program of the College of Communication and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.