The Independent Film Centre in Iraq has launched a workshop in advanced 35mm filmmaking for its 20 students.

The students will begin training in the roles of directing, producing, screenwriting, cinematography and editing under the tutelage of some of Iraq’s leading filmmakers. The class will shoot four shorts on 35mm stock provided by Kodak.

Alongside the workshop, the Iraqi-US organisation Sada, based in New York, will launch an online multimedia course for Iraqi students, to be supervised by lecturers from the US, Canada and Germany.

Filmmakers Mohamed Al-Daradji, Oday Rasheed, Furat Al Jamil and Atia Al-Daradji found the centre in 2003 with the aid of film companies Human Film and Iraq Al-Rafidain. Since inception it has served as a production hub with links to among others Son Of Babylon, which screened at Berlin in 2010.

The centre’s mission is to advance Iraqi filmmaking to an internationally recognised level. Staff have coordinated scholarships for its students to attend both The New York Film Academy and The London Film School.

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