Event Alert: Baghdad, Texas Has NYC Premier Tonight, Friday August 27, At Quad Cinema
The Quad Cinema is presenting the New York premier of BAGHDAD,TEXAS (90 minutes), tonight, 8/27. The film was directed by David H. Hickey and produced by Edythe and Booka Michel — it had its world premier at the Palm Springs Film Festival and won the Audience Choice Award and Best Narrative Feature at the 2009 Moondance Festival in Bolder, Colorado. It also won Best Script at the Strasbourg International Film Festival in France.
An “international fantasia that plays out on an exotic game ranch in Southwest Texas,” Baghdad, Texas is set in 2003 when the search was on for a deposed Sadaam Hussein, and asks the question, “What might happen if a ‘Mid-east Dictator’ flees his defeated country on a private jet, is downed in a violent storm on his flight to Cuba, and crash lands in Mexico just steps from the US border?”
An outstanding feature of the film is Booka Michel’s original fusion soundtrack, which SonicScoop has been enjoying over multiple listens. The album, Booka and the Flaming Geckos, was released last September during the picture’s festival run and over the past year has earned major recognition. Well-established in the music business as a percussionist (with Odetta, Pete Seeger, Hoyt Axton, Joe Eley, Townes Van Zandt and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) and hailed for his eclectic folk and Americana record label, Loudhouse, Michel has produced and arranged award winning albums in Europe and the US with artists and songwriters such as David Olney (Emmy Lou Harris, Johnny Cash), Mike Kindred (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lightin’ Hopkins), Ponty Bone (Tom Petty, The Clash) and R.C. Banks (Joe Eley, Linda Ronstadt).
Soundtrack samples:
“Carmen’s Dance”
“Bad Weather Girl”
Key NYC connections to this Texas-based film include Manhattan-based attorney Steven Beer, who served as Producer’s Representative and Distribution Counsel for Baghdad, Texas.
BAGHDAD, TEXAS opens on August 27 and runs through September 3 at the Quad Cinema on 34 West 13th Street. p: 212-255-2243 f: 212-255-2247 quadcinema@aol.com . For Advance ticket sales call 777-FILM or purchase from movietickets.com.