BETWEEN THE RIVERS PRODUCTIONS presents a LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD, LTD production Letters From Baghdad The extraordinary life and times of Gertrude Bell A DOCUMENTARY BY SABINE KRAYENBÜHL AND ZEVA OELBAUM WITH TILDA SWINTON AS THE VOICE OF GERTRUDE BELL DIRECTED BY Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl PRODUCED BY Zeva Oelbaum EDITED BY Sabine Krayenbühl CO-PRODUCER: Mia Bays EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Tilda Swinton, Thelma Schoonmaker, Ruedi Gerber ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Christian Popp, Fabrice Estève RUNTIME: 95 min | COUNTRY: USA, UK, France | LANGUAGE: English, Arabic OFFICIAL FILM WEBSITE: lettersfrombaghdad.com TRAILER: lettersfrombaghdadthemovie.com/media/ PRESS ROOM: lettersfrombaghdadthemovie.com/media-2/ Winner Audience Award LettersFromBaghdad | @LettFromBaghdad LOGLINE Voiced and executive produced by Academy award winning actor Tilda Swinton, Letters from Baghdad tells the extraor- dinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. Bell shaped the destiny of Iraq after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia), why has she been written out of the history? SYNOPSIS Letters from Baghdad is the story of a true original—Gertrude Bell—sometimes called the “female” Lawrence of Arabia. The film tells the dramatic story of this British spy, explorer and political powerhouse. Bell traveled widely in Arabia before being recruited by British military intelligence during WWI to help draw the borders of Iraq and as a result helped shape the modern Middle East. Using stunning, never-seen-before footage of the region, the film chronicles her extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British colonial power. The sto- ry is told entirely in the words of Gertrude Bell and her contemporaries, excerpted from their intimate letters, private diaries and official documents. It is a unique look at both a complex woman and a long-vanished world. The film takes us into a past that is eerily current. DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT We have often reflected on why making this film about Gertrude Bell felt so intensely urgent and personal to us. What was it about her and her story that made us, a film editor and a producer and still-photographer, join forces and take the leap to becoming first-time directors? We first met while working on another documentary film, “Ahead of Time,” which premiered at the Toronto Interna- tional Film Festival in 2009. Zeva produced and Sabine edited that film, about a groundbreaking centenarian journalist named Ruth Gruber. Each of us had traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Syria, and had been captivated by Janet Wallach’s biography of Gertrude Bell, “Desert Queen”. We found Bell fascinating, complex and contradictory and were intrigued by the contrast between her public and private self. She had been considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire during her era, and was much more influential than her colleague T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia), yet virtually written out of the history that she helped make. She left behind more than 1600 letters and 7,000 photographs. Her stunning photographs and vibrant letters transported us into her daily life and the world she loved. We share an appreciation of archival footage and love the idea of using it the way a painter works with a palette. We knew it would be a challenge to find film footage shot over a century ago in the Middle East. How much footage would exist of Baghdad, Damascus, Teheran and Cairo? After all, this was the era of the birth of cinema. If we found footage, what shape would it be in? The results of our international search for footage thrilled us. After 4 years of research, we discovered over 1000 extraordinary film clips in more than 25 archives around the world, some of it hand-tinted. Much of what we found had never been digitized, and was buried in reels that had been in storage for more than half a century. Our previous travels in the Middle East were extremely helpful, as we navigated through hours of footage, some of which was misla- beled (e.g. Afghanistan was occasionally included in footage of the Arabian peninsula). We discovered the evidence of a truly vanished world—a vibrant mosaic where peoples of different ethnicities and religions mingled energetically on the streets. We requested that each archive go into their vaults and scan the original 35mm footage, providing us with the best quality footage and preserving it digitally for use by other filmmakers. This was the mission of our successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014. 2 | LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD From the beginning, it was important for us to tell the controversial story of the British occupation of Iraq and the drawing of its borders using primary source material. We didn’t want to rely solely on Gertrude Bell’s point of view and researched her colleagues in the colonial office, her family and close friends. Turning this original source material into dialogue, we used actors to portray these individuals. To ensure that this footage would interweave seamlessly with the archival clips, we shot actual 16mm film. The idea emerged to create a documentary that could have been made in the late 1920s after Bell’s death, a film that would completely immerse the viewer in another time and place. We felt that to use contemporary interviews with historians and other experts would undermine the viewer’s ability to experience the full power of Bell’s epic story. Our hope is that viewers come away from our film with a deeper understanding and nuanced appreciation of this part of the world and its peoples. This goal seems even more urgent given the current political climate in the United States and other parts of the Western world. Gertrude Bell championed tolerance and the diversity of this region. She is an inspiration not only for her trailblazing journeys and accomplishments, but because she was even more daring in her respect for a culture so very different from her own. — Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl ©THE GERTRUDE BELL ARCHIVE, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY 3 | LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD GERTRUDE BELL TIMELINE 1868 1904 1917 1922 July 14th. Gertrude Bell embarks on Bell is recruited to Bell starts drawing the Margaret Lowthian the first of several work as Oriental southern borders of Bell is born at her archaeological Secretary in the colonial Iraq. She is appointed grandfather’s home expeditions in the office in Baghdad Honorary Director of in Washington New Middle East, taking under Sir Percy Cox. Antiquities. Hall, County Durham, photographs and She is awarded the England. documenting the Commander of the 1923 ancient sites. British Empire (CBE). Bell launches plans for 1871 the Iraq Museum. Bell’s mother dies at 1907 1918 age 27; Gertrude is three Bell publishes The November 11th. 1925 years old. Desert and the Sown, Armistice is signed and Bell visits England for one of seven books she WWI ends. the last time. 1886 authored. Bell begins her studies 1919 1926 at Lady Margaret Hall, 1913/1914 Bell attends the Paris The Iraq Museum opens Oxford University. Bell embarks on Peace Conference as the first room to the her groundbreaking the only woman with public. 1888 1500-mile, four a diplomatic role; she month journey by then returns to Baghdad Bell completes her 1926 camel to Hayyil. She and resumes her work studies at Oxford and July 12th. Bell dies from is awarded a gold as Oriental Secretary. becomes the first an overdose of sleeping medal by the Royal woman to receive a First pills at age 57; she is Geographic Society (i.e. Highest Honors) in 1920 buried in the British for this impressive Modern History. Bell’s white paper, Cemetery, Baghdad. accomplishment. Review of Civil 1892 Administration 1914 of Mesopotamia, Bell travels to Persia to World War I breaks is presented to visit her uncle, Sir Frank out; Bell’s travel maps Parliament. Lascelles, the British and tribal notes are Ambassador to Teheran. used by British military 1921 intelligence. 1900 Bell attends Winston Bell goes to Jerusalem Churchill’s Cairo and then journeys 1915 Conference with T.E. through the ancient Bell is hired by the Lawrence and Sir Percy ruins of Palmyra into British Admiralty as Cox to determine the the first female British future governance of the Syrian desert. Military Intelligence Mesopotamia; in a officer. She joins the plan devised by Bell, Arab Bureau in Cairo Lawrence and Cox, alongside colleague Faisal, son of the Sherif T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. of Mecca, is crowned the Lawrence of Arabia) first king of Iraq. 4 | LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD ABOUT THE TEAM SABINE KRAYENBÜHL, Director / Editor Sabine Krayenbühl is an award winning editor with over 20 theatrical documentaries and narrative features to her credit, many of which have premiered at prestigious festivals around the world. Her work includes Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated My Architect for which she received an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award nomination. Other credits include Mad Hot Ballroom, one of the top twenty highest grossing documentaries, The Bridge produced by IFC, Picasso and Braque go to the Movies, produced by Martin Scorsese, Virgin Tales, Ahead of Time, Jennifer Fox’s Emmy nominated My Reincarnation, Salinger on which she consulted and most recently Eric Steel’s Kiss the Water, co-produced by BBC Films. Krayenbühl has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a long-term member of New York Women in Film and Television. ZEVA OELBAUM, Director / Producer Zeva Oelbaum is an award winning producer and photographer.