Reality TV - Iraqi Style

What would Baudrillard say? A clip from the documentary, TV Iraqi Style, which screens 06/05/07 at the Curzon Soho in London. Previously aired on More 4, the film looks at the birth of a new media following the end of Sadam's broadcasting monopoly (outlined well in a 2004 New York Times article here) as a result of which the country now has its own simulacra Pop Idol, and most poetically, its very own version of Extreme Home Makeover (with a conscience), entitled Materials and Labour and hosted by 'The Iraqi Oprah.'

As the director of Materials and Labour states; "In the rest of the world reality TV is a kind of entertainment...This is reality TV with the flavour of Iraqi pain."

An amazing phenomenon and an important piece of journalism. See a further 10 minute excerpt from the film here.

As a morally corrupt counterpoint, the campest element of the US military's atrocities in Iraq yet, can be viewed by clicking on the image above, in a piece of renegade spoof film making from the most sophisticated fighting force on the planet. Ethically highly dubious.