While you were momentarily not paying attention to us, we quietly launched a new blog for the Qwidget at http://www.qwidget.com/blog/. The qwidget is a project that we dreamed up to bring more web users into dialogue with each other. When we were releasing hometown baghdad on this blog, we always wanted better ways to bring more people into meaningful conversations and relationships. So we went back to our dialogue building expertise and came up with the tool that we always wished for. If you are a blogger who uses Wordpress on your own hosted domain and want to try it out on your blog, send me an email at my email address. Please check out the qwidget blog as well to see how we’re thinking these days. And no, this does not mean that we are not producing more web and television shows. It’s not a full direction change so much as a spin off that is taking all of my time. And yes, I love it.

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This is week old news, but here is our announcement nonetheless: Hometown Baghdad won three Webby Awards! It’s an incredible honor and we’re absolutely thrilled.
Of the four categories we were nominated in, we won the following:

• News and Politics Series
• Public Service and Activism
• Reality

A huge congratulations to our fellow winners and nominees. If any Hometown Baghdad fans are going to the award ceremony or any associated after parties, be sure to seek me out and say hello. (Extra points to the person who introduces me to Stephen Colbert.) Look for the guy with the beard…though I imagine in a room full of internet geeks, I won’t be the only one sporting a scruffy look. I will be with the Chat the Planet team and Fady Hadid, the Iraqi producer of HTB who was crazy enough to work with us in the middle of friggin’ war zone.

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In our quest to bring the stories of Hometown Baghdad to television, we are looking for a few translators in the New York area who can understand the Iraqi dialect. Ideally, native Iraqis are best for the position because some of the footage contains Iraqi slang. Translators would need to start as soon as possible and can work days or nights. One benefit of this position is that we will teach you how to enter translations directly into editing computers. This will make you a more valuable translator in the future! And of course, this is a paid position.

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We at Chat headquarters are looking for a batch of awesomely talented, dedicated, and passionate interns to help us edit the stories of Hometown Baghdad into a two-hour television special. If I was still intern-age (and how I wish I was), I would jump at this opportunity in a second. Interns will focus on logging and digitizing incredible footage from Baghdad. And better yet, we usually get our own coffee so there will be a dearth of the typical intern coffee runs.

Some details are below and you can get a bit more info from our Craigslist Ppost.

Editing Assistant
Responsibilities:
• Log and digitize new material added to our library.
• Maintain Media Library
• DVD authoring and duplication
• General administrative tasks in and outside of the production realm.

Qualifications:
• Knowledge of Avid
• Strong editing and storytelling skills
• Knowledge of Photoshop preferred

Additional Qualifications:

Flexible, creative, positive attitude and can handle multiple tasks.
Must be self-motivated

How to Apply:

Email me a cover letter and resume.

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A friend forwarded me an invitation to a showcase of recent documentary films made by students at the Baghdad Film School. The night looks fantastic for fans of Hometown Baghdad and anyone interested in the situation in Iraq.
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The films being screened include:

Baghdad Days (35 mins) (directed by Hiba Bassem, 2005). Hiba Bassem, a young woman from Kirkuk , returns to Baghdad after the war, to finish her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts . The film is a diary of her year as she tries to find a place to live, looks for work, graduates from college, deals with family problems and struggles to come to terms with her position as a woman on her own.

This film won a New Horizon silver award at the Al Jazeera International Film Festival in Doha (2006) and a golden award at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival (2006).

A Candle For The Shabandar Cafe (25 mins) (directed by Emad Ali, 2007). Founded in 1917, the Shabandar Cafe in Al Mutanabbi Street in the heart of the old centre of Baghdad , was a cultural landmark, where generations of Iraqis came to discuss and debate literature and politics - a living repository of Iraqi intellectual history and one of the last places where people could gather to exchange ideas. Emad had shot most of his film by the end of 2006, but in March 2007, a
massive car bomb destroyed the Shabandar Cafe, all the bookshops on Al Mutanabbi Street and killed and wounded scores of people. Days later, Baghdad ’s poets and artists held a wake in the ruins of the street they loved so much and Emad took a small camera and went back to film. As he was leaving he was attacked, his camera stolen and he was shot in the legs and chest, and his own story is an epilogue to his film about the Shabandar Cafe and Mutanabbi Street - before and after they were destroyed.

Dr Nabil (15 mins) (directed by Ahmed Jabbar, 2007)
A gentle and committed surgeon, with literary talents, works at a small understaffed Baghdad hospital, which suffers from lack of equipment and medicines. While many other doctors have been killed or have fled the country in fear of their lives, Dr Nabil has decided to stay. He worries, though, about the effect that the atmosphere of violence and brutality is having on his young son.

Time & Location:
Wednesday April 30th, 7pm
Millennium Film Workshop, 66 East 4th Street New York , New York

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While the Webby Academy chooses the official Webby winners, the People’s Voice awards are chosen by the people, i.e. you! So while you are hoping and praying that your favorite series/sites/videos/cewebrities (go Tay Zonday!) get the official wins, you can also cast your own votes in each category here (registration required). So go vote for your favorites (wink wink nudge nudge).

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I am uncontrollably thrilled to announce that Hometown Baghdad was nominated for four Webby Awards! The nominations are in the online film and video section in the following categories:

• Best Editing
• Reality
• Public Service and Activism
• News and Politics: Series

This is such an honor. As a tried and true internet geek, the Webby Awards are about the highest set of honors in the entire world to me. So I am ridiculously proud of everyone here at Chat and I’m proud to the point of drooling of the brave Iraqi crew and subjects. I even just called a very groggy Fady Hadid to give him the good news, momentarily having forgot about the time difference. (Sorry, Fady!)

This series was a long, hard, stressful and rewarding struggle. And this is a nice cap on the whole experience. But we can’t get too euphoric. As we celebrate, our hearts go out to the people who helped us make Hometown Baghdad who are still in danger, who are still struggling. With any luck, this nomination can make my dream of working with them again to tell Iraqi refugee stories in Leaving Hometown Baghdad a reality. Even though everyone at Chat makes fun of me for liking that name.

Watch a special made-for-the-Webbies-intro-to-HTB video made by our editors Barrett Hawes and Will Gardiner. Hmm…maybe I’m not so good at naming things.

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We put them back up here. The YouTube videos are still down.

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