We’ve been huge fans of VBS.tv since it first debuted just a short year ago. For those of you unfamiliar, VBS is Vice Magazine’s gonzo journalism platform that explores global issues through the publication’s same old snarky voice but with a bit more substance than the notorious DOs and DON’Ts of the glossy. From Bolivian Marching Powder to Raving in the Black Sea, VBS delicately balances their deboucherous reputation with surprisingly original and timely international news pieces.
One of the network’s first pieces to gain major media attention was about a heavy metal band in Baghdad aptly named Heavy Metal in Baghdad. The story followed members of Acrassicauda, Iraq’s “best known heavy metal band”, as they struggled to keep on rocking while their city tumbled further and further into chaos.
What started out as a seventeen piece series profiling a heavy metal band in a war-torn country has evolved into a full-length feature film highlighting previously unseen aspects of Iraqi life that are typically neglected and often overlooked. The film made its US premier at the SXSW film festival last week and will be making its New York debut at the 15th Annual NY Underground Film Festival on April 2.
Apparently, this is the first time a web series has ever been turned into a feature film and released to theaters.
A bit more about the film:
Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.
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Ben Dietz Talks to PSFK
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