Capturing post-war Iraq in three chapters, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS focuses on the lives of individuals to tell a larger story of a country torn apart by war and ethnic division.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and an Emmy for Best Cinematography. The film was honored with awards at the Sundance Film Festival for Best Documentary Directing, Editing, and Cinematography.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS received top prize at the Chicago International Film Festival, Full Frame Film Festival, the Gotham Awards, the IDA Awards, and won the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS was included in The Guardian's list of 50 Documentaries You Need to See and Paste Magazine's 25 Best Documentaries of the Decade (2000-2009).
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WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
"magnificent"
-- The Stranger
"James Longley's mesmerizing "Iraq in Fragments" shakes off the oversaturated video vocabulary that has defined media coverage of the war-torn country and brings a cinematic beauty, both terrifying and ethereal"
-- Stephen Garret, Indiewire
"intimate and provocative ... Longley's sensitive eye for imagery and graceful camerawork ... gives the film a beauty rarely seen ..."
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"highly recommended; a beautifully shot, fascinating and informative portrait ... a searing vision of this historical miasma."
-- Time Out London
"an Iraq that you haven't likely seen before ... stunning"
" Iraq in Fragments is an in-depth marvel"
-- New York Magazine
"'Iraq in Fragments' is a beautifully filmed biography of a country on the verge of civil war."
-- Peter Byck, Lousiville Courier-Journal
"A patient, lyrically photographed, closely observed meditation that pays calm attention to aspects of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish daily life."
-- Entertainment Weekly
"a rarity ... an extraordinary journalistic coup"
-- Film Comment
"Not a moment from these Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish daily lives is familiar from U.S. news programs, and it's all eye-opening."
-- In These Times
"the most lacerating and complex American doc so far about the war Over There."
-- Eye Weekly
""Iraq in Fragments" is the latest entry in the crowded field of documentaries from that war. It is also one of the best, partly because it is more concerned with exploring daily life and individual destinies than with articulating a position. ... Whether you think the war is right or wrong, "Iraq in Fragments" is a necessary reminder of just how painful and complicated it is."
-- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"beautifully shot, well-edited and gives you a picture of Iraq that you've never seen before."
-- John Powers, Fresh Air
"In beautifully shot, almost poetic images, it takes us inside this fractured country, letting us feel what its like from the inside from three points of view--Sunni, Shiite and Kurd. ... A fascinating glimpse of an Iraq the mass media never shows us, the movie is a quiet revelation."
-- David Ansen, Newsweek
"... a one-man production of startling audacity and aesthetic provocation. ... if Longley's astonishing feat of poetic agitation has a precedent in the entire history of documentary, I'm not aware of it."
-- Rob Nelson, The Village Voice
"a documentary providing insight to the complexity of Iraq and its future."
-- Sally Barnes, Boise Weekly
"a visually startling, patiently observed and deeply humanist film"
-- Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly