Directed by Carole Basri, and Adriana Davis
Documentary Feature
USA | 2020 | 56 min
In English
The Iraqi government, under color of law, stripped the Iraqi Jews of their property, including religious and cultural artifacts, starting in 1952. Rescued by US soldiers in 2003 from a flooded basement of the Iraqi secret police, the Iraqi Jewish Archives consist of over 4800 books and artifacts. Among those are the records of the last Jewish education center in Iraq – The Frank Iny School. Presently, the US and Iraqi governments are planning to return those same archives to a politically unstable Iraq. One day there will be little hard evidence for the community to prove they ever existed in Iraq. Moreover, this same plight is being inflicted upon other minorities in the middle east. NYSJFF is please to present the world premiere of this eye-opening feature documentary that include personal stories of escape, how the archives were discovered, and what the archives mean to future generations to come.
Carole Basri — Executive Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer
Carole Basri is a lawyer and filmmaker. She’s a visiting professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law and a visiting professor at Pericles Law School. At Fordham University Law School she was an adjunct professor from 2010 to 2018 and created the first LLM in Corporate Compliance in the world at Fordham Law School. She was also an adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 2003, Ms. Basri was a member of the US State Department’s “Future of Iraq” Project and a member of the Coalition Provisional Authority, with the Iraqi Reconstruction Development Council (IRDC) for Ambassador Bremer in Baghdad. Ms. Basri has Executive Produced a trilogy of films about Iraq’s Jewish community and history: THE LIFE OF FRANK INY (1999), SEARCHING FOR BAGHDAD (2002) and THE LAST JEWS OF BAGHDAD (2005). The trilogy has screened at over 80 premiere film festivals in the US, Canada, Israel and Europe and was featured on PBS and JLTV. She produced a short documentary on hemophiliacs in Iraq who got AIDS through tainted blood parts. She has been a commentator on Saddam’s trial, the Iraqi elections and its constitution for MSNBC, CNN, FOX, PBS and Al Iraqiya TV. Ms. Basri received at B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
Adriana Davis — Co-Director, Co-Producer, Co-Writer and Editor
Adriana 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. Ms. Davis is the, co-director, producer, writer and editor of an acclaimed trilogy of documentaries about Iraq’s Jewish community and history: THE LIFE OF FRANK INY (1999), SEARCHING FOR BAGHDAD (2002) and THE LAST JEWS OF BAGHDAD (2005). The trilogy has screened at over 80 premiere film festivals in the US, Canada, Israel and Europe and was featured on PBS and JLTV. 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 and a noir thriller KILL JOHNNY MILLS for the festival circuit. She is currently producing two other documentaries: A GRAND IDEA following one man’s quest to mount a Broadway production of his own Yiddish version of “Pirates of Penzance” and WHAT’S FOR LUNCH profiling the struggles of the NYC school lunch program. Ms. Davis received a B.A. in political science and completed all but her dissertation for her M.A. in Congressional Studies from The Catholic University of America and holds a Producing Certificate from The Hollywood Film Institute.