Baghdad, California - A Film by Diego Lynch & Rahmah Pauzi

Join us for a screening of "Baghdad, California" on Saturday, October 26th at 11am PT at the New Americans Museum. This documentary explores the impact of the Middle Eastern American community on San Diego's El Cajon. A Q&A with director Diego Lynch will follow.

Admission is free, but your generous donations will help support our mission. Send your donations by scanning the QR below or by using this link: https://shorturl.at/UamyY

Film Synopsis:

In a city divided between rich and poor, hills and the valley––El Cajon’s face has been transformed by tens of thousands of refugees. Post the War On Terror, it is now “Little Baghdad,” the largest home for refugees of the Iraq War in California. But, the face of power – the rich and the lawmakers – remains unchanged.

Every ten years, the U.S. counts its citizens in the Census, tabulating the tapestry of identities which comprise the country. But most significantly, it’s data determines the distribution of resources, power, and representation. Two women––a Latina from California’s farm-labor organizing tradition, and a Kurdish running a women’s shelter––are organizing to get their communities finally counted to tally the changes in this town.

As these activists go door-to-door in this American city, they try to convince their neighbors to face the question: can the democracy promised to Iraq, 7000 miles away and 20 years ago, be found in the home of the free?

Director:

Diego Lynch is a San Diego based filmmaker, media & journalism educator, communications professional, and an environmental activist with an MA in Multimedia Journalism from NYU. He has a long history of environmental activism dating back to his pre-teens – sweating to preserve San Diego’s Ocean Sage Chaparral. He's done media works with various community organizations and justice-based NGOs including Viet Vote, License to Freedom, The Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), and Maraya Performing Arts, while regularly teaches at the Media Arts Center San Diego & Southwestern College. He's a 2023 San Diego RISE Urban Leadership Fellow and is One World Media's 2020 Global Short Doc Forum Filmmaker through his film Baghdad, California. Diego’s work tracks the stresses being placed on U.S. society as the empire built in the 20th century meets with the limitations of the 21st.

Co-Director:

Rahmah Pauzi is a Malaysian documentary filmmaker, journalist, and a product strategist with an MA in News and Documentary from New York University. She’s done work for outlets such as PBS, Al Jazeera, Channel News Asia, and BFM Radio Kuala Lumpur. She is a performer in the internationally-acclaimed documentary theater about Malayan exiled communists "A Notional History," that's toured to Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Yokohama Performing Arts Meeting, Spielart, and Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting. She's also a Freedom Film Fest 2022 Grantee, One World Media 2021 Fellow, and an ASIADOC 2021 Storytelling Lab Filmmaker through her film, “The Soul of a Teacher.” Most of her works revolve around the themes of home, displacement, crossroads, and the intersection of the political and the personal.

Host or Publisher New Americans Museum