Presented in partnership with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s summit What Comes After: Cities, Art & Recovery, The Kevorkian Center, NYU, The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, and the Tribeca Film Institute.

Heralded as, "Iraq's first uncensored feature film in over a decade" and "the first film made since the start of the current Iraqi war," Oday Rasheed's Underexposure powerfully addresses the simultaneous responsibility and uncertainty of bearing witness to crisis and a testament to the power of art in the face of overwhelming tragedy. He presents a cast of characters riddled with both hopelessness and promise: a determined filmmaker working with only expired film, an eloquent poet weak with cancer, a wounded soldier wrapped in bandages and prayers but on the brink of death, an old man full of memories of Baghdad that are now only nostalgia, and most importantly, a city in rubble still filled with desire, compassion and perseverance. The stories of these fictional characters are woven together and set into real footage of the landscape of war-torn Iraq, resulting in a gripping view of the symbolic and the experienced realities of contemporary Iraqis. In Arabic w/English subtitles.

Followed by a conversation between director Sinan Antoon, Professor of Arabic Literature at Gallatin School, NYU

Oday Rasheed was born in Iraq in 1973. After completing secondary school in Baghdad in 1991, he attended the Institute for Electrical Science and the Institute for Applicable Art. Shortly after completing his studies he worked for local newspapers writing critical essays and articles on cinema. In 1998, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in the Film Department for a short time. In the late 1990’s, Mr. Rasheed producded several experimental movies on video. Some of his works include Mud Whiteness, 1997; Another Introduction, 1998; and Gilgamesh: The Epic...The Place, 2002. He also wrote for television the screenplays for Hujaz Kar, 1996-1997; Our Town’s Workshop, 1997-1998; Document 12, 1998; Karantina, 1999 and Once In Babylon, adopted from George Galloway’s story in 2002. Underexposure is Oday Rasheed’s first feature film. Wanting to contribute to the revival of Iraqi cinema, his aim is to encourage all young Iraqi filmmakers in these difficult times to continue expressing themselves to the world hoping for peace and freedom for everyone.