Urban Sights: Urban History and Visual Culture

Ageless Iraq

Released in 1954, Ageless Iraq is a twenty-one minute long documentary that sets out to narrate the history of modern Iraq for general audiences. Sponsored by the Iraq Petroleum Company and produced by the Associated British Pathe in association with Film Centre, the documentary features the first footage captured on location in Iraq that was shot and edited entirely in color. Little is known about the production of Ageless Iraq, as no production records exist in the available archives. Nonetheless, the film remains the most in depth and globally circulated cinematic portrait of modern Iraq and its oil industry prior to the 1958 Revolution.

Based on the policy adopted by the Iraq Petroleum Company and Film Centre during the making of The Third River, it is likely that an Arabic language version of Ageless Iraq was produced for Iraqi audiences in addition to the English language film that remains in the British Pathe archive; however this cannot be verified using available records. Based on the fact that a promotional brochure was printed to accompany the film, Ageless Iraq was likely distributed in limited theatrical release. Most of its showings were probably non-theatrical and handled by the Petroleum Film Bureau, which screened the documentary for classrooms and film societies. Ageless Iraq was catalogued as an educational film in the trade publications Film User and To-day’s Cinema and recommended for use in schools by 1956.

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