The Iraqi Film Festival Metaphor

I thought I was being funny by just writing the title ‘Iraqi Film Festival’ but it turns out that there is an actual festival, its second annual recognized on December 2007. My use of the Iraqi Film Festival was to remind all of those super-smart, talented, young “artists of color” of something they will eventually have to face. Face it kids, you can be most talented, creative, reliable, sweet person in the white world but there are certain things you will not be able to do on someone else’s tab—especially when that someone else is a barbarian with nuclear weapons. You will not be able to make this guy (and his minions) subsidize your projects that intelligently, creatively and accurately portray that barbarian as, well, a barbarian.

So just imagine that that our Iraqi Film Festival is subsidized with funds under the control of Bush political appointees misappropriated from the taxes of the American people. And suppose that the festival will be attended by the families and friends of the Iraqi neo ruling class cultivated by the American coalition. These people do not want to see some film portraying the neo ruling class (and the Americans) in an unfavorable manner. So there is a pronounced bias from the beginning. And this is not offensive to me. Let me, rasx(), repeat that again: this is not offensive to me. Hey, it’s their money.

What is offensive to me is when the authority figures of the film festival start to insinuate, encourage in the lay public or even proclaim that their official selections speak for all of Iraq and they have carefully researched, promoted and found all of the talented filmmakers in Iraq—and even all Iraqi nationals throughout the world. The implication here is offensive. To not be selected in this film festival now means that you are not a filmmaker—or, worse, you are not a talented filmmaker.

When this lying bullshit is allowed to go on for years and into decades, there will come along a generation of young people who actually believe in this shit like the tooth fairy. This means that many young artists will simply “give up” being artists because they are frustrated with the “mystery” of why they can’t get their work into the prestigious Iraqi Film Festival. Oh sure, they can get their work in some “little” festival—but not the big one: The Iraqi Film Festival. Because there is nothing about the European mystique of the artist that prevents egocentric preoccupations, many of these young artists will passionately fail to study what kind of films actually get into the festival. After my careful non-research, here are my fictional selections:

• An excellently crafted work that essentially talks shit about the Kurds.

• A wonderful exposé of the super-hidden world of Arab male prostitutes. There is nothing that can bring a smile to a Bush-appointed, American officer like a grown-ass Arab man prancing about like Oscar Wilde.

• A charming, homespun story of an Iraqi kid’s love for hip hop because of the presence of kind American soldiers. Showing Black soldiers busting rhymes in body armor as Iraqi babies try to sing along is guaranteed a warm, ignorant-ass, barbarian chuckle.

• An epic film about the love between an Iranian man and an Iraqi woman in the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war. Making sure that top Iranian officials in the film use words like “exterminate” and “genocide” in spite of refrains like “are not we Sunni brothers?” go a long way for American policy.

• A true story about a born-again Christian woman from the United States, determined to open schools for girls in Afghanistan. The bougie, pretentious Iraqi audience will not protest when the women makes a historically inaccurate remark about women not being educated at all throughout the entire Muslim world.So the bottom line is that perfectly talented artist “of color” will be systematically overlooked because this artist failed to understand the principles undergirding strategic obsequiousness. Anyone reading these words at least one hundred years from now should wonder why this subject is not brought up more often. So for you dudes in the future, these are reasons why this is not talked about more:

• People “of color” who dare to call themselves artists—especially at an early age—are likely to have socioeconomic backgrounds that provide them with the “privilege” of taking the principles undergirding strategic obsequiousness for granted. These poor kids know from an early age that being the only colored kid means fit in or die. These poor kids know very little about functioning intellectually outside of a European context. So to not play the European game means losing the ability to think entirely. This is some sad impoverished shit that many are very proud of…

• When Juan Devis calls me “bitter,” when Saul Williams sends me an email with “huh?” in it, when DJ Spooky (or someone impersonating him) posts a comment calling me a “hater,” all of these actions fuel the most important reason this subject is not brought up more often. People will assume that you have personal emotional problems when you say something like, ‘The Iraqi Film Festival ain’t shit.’ The “hater” comment is the most insulting because the person speaking almost certainly functions based on the assumption that they way they are living their life is something to be desired by others—including me! So any critique is met with self-stroking consolations (probably developed since childhood) that others are merely jealous—instead of others saying that there is a whole lot of room for improvement. Since I am not on drugs all the fucking time, kids, no I don’t forget shit like this and just “move on”—I write the shit down (sometimes twice), and move on (with full, healthy closure)…

• To truly not complain about anything means you are rich or on drugs—or both—so a whole lot of poor young people like that style and pretend to not be bothered by anything. It is some of the wackest shit in the world to see someone put on a smile they were carrying around in a little white box marked to open break glass… Even ordained monks complain about things folks.Wow. Sigh. I seem to have it “all” figured out, eh? It should not be too hard for the young artist “of color” reading these words to understand that the Iraqi Film Festival is all around you. Almost every major institution and organization designed to recognize artistic talent (especially those established for artists “of color”) is ominously not that far removed from my Iraqi Film Festival metaphor.

This is why the honesty of, say, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival is truly appreciated. As of this writing, this is what they say about their selection process:

The San Francisco Electronic Music Festival is programmed by curatorial committee from a pool of suggestions and nominations. We regret that we are unable to review unsolicited promo packages and support materials at this time.

They admit that they have limits. They are effectively telling me that because I have no personal, friend-of-a-friend contact with the “curatorial committee” I have no chance whatsoever to get into the festival. They are also saying that, because I might be too busy making music, I will also not get into the festival because of my failure to orchestrate a political campaign to win “nominations.” Honesty is the best policy and that is why your local Iraqi Film Festival ain’t shit.

rasx()