As Americans wait in anticipation to see how the dawn of a new Iraq will unfold, many questions of the war, and life under Saddam, remain unanswered. Imagine being able to call up an old friend and ask these very questions, directly and honestly, with no hesitation. This is what happened in early May when DCTV and Chat the Planet brought together the youth of the critically acclaimed “Bridge to Baghdad” to speak again for the first time since the bombs fell. Bridge to Baghdad I was filmed on March 1, just two weeks before the start of what was to become “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Days after the U.S. declared the war officially over, a crew was sent to a now smoldering Baghdad to rediscover the young Iraqis, who were beginning their adult lives in a strange new world. Bridge to Baghdad II allowed these two groups to resume the conversation that was cut short by the war. In Bridge to Baghdad II, the young Americans and Iraqis hold another satellite dialogue where they are finally able to ask the questions that have been burning inside of them for weeks: What happened during the war? How do you feel now that Saddam is gone from power? Were there things you wanted to say last time, but could not because of the regime?

Bridge to Baghdad cameras follow the Iraqi youths as they begin this new journey. In intimate video diaries, the same Iraqi youths take us along as they return to their bombed out classrooms for the first time. We follow Hamsa as she begins work as a translator for the myriad of American news agencies that have suddenly flooded her neighborhood. And again we meet Walid, the Iraqi metal-head whose rock band reunites when the guitarist and bassist return from the front lines. For more on Walid and Saif, another of the Iraqi participants, click here.

Co-produced by DCTV and Chat the Planet.

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