Maysoon Pachachi

Maysoon Pachachi is a film director, editor and producer of Iraqi origin. She was educated in Iraq, the U.S., Britain and can speak English, Arabic, French and Italian. She studied Philosophy at University College London (BA Hons) and Film at the Slade School of Art under Thorold Dickinson where visiting lecturers included Jean Renoir and Gillo Pontecorvo. She has made documentaries in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Aside from making films, Maysoon has also taught film directing and editing in Britain, Iraq and Palestine (in Jerusalem, Gaza and at Birzeit University). She now lives in Britain where she co-founded Act Together: Women's Action For Iraq, a group of UK-based Iraqi and non-Iraqi women formed in 2000 to campaign against the economic sanctions on Iraq. They also campaigned against the invasion of Iraq. Now the groups focus is on the occupation and the support of independent grassroots women’s initiatives in Iraq.^[1] She has also written articles on her work in Iraq and Palestine for the New Statesman^[2] and The Guardian^[3][4] amongst other publications.^[5]

Following the start of the Iraq War in 2004, she co-founded with her colleague, Kasim Abid, also a London-based Iraqi filmmaker, the Independent Film & Television College, a free-of-charge film-training centre in Baghdad.^[6] She documented some of her return to Iraq in Return to the Land of Wonders.

She is the daughter of Iraqi politician Adnan Pachachi.^[7]

References

1. ^ Act Together Women's Action for Iraq acttogether.org
2. ^ Hurt by the west by Maysoon Pachachi New Statesman 10th June 2002
3. ^ 'Who can live the way we've had to live and be normal?' by Maysoon Pachachi The Guardian 9th April 2004
4. ^ 'You just can't sit at home afraid' by Maysoon Pachachi The Guardian 29th August 2006
5. ^ Occupation Rough Cut: Reflections on Ramallah by Maysoon Pachachi vertigomagazine.co.uk Vol.2 No.5 - Summer 2003
6. ^ Independent Film & Television College IFTVC.org
7. ^ Heroes and Handycams by Cath Clarke The Guardian 1st May 2009

External links

• Maysoon Pachachi at The Internet Movie Database
• Maysoon Pachachi "Women make movies"
• Pachachi
• Maysoon Pachachi, Iraqi film maker
• Exiled in England with plans for Baghdad

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