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• 1 2014-06-30T14:04:33-07:00 Facing Iraq "As It Is" 14 text 2014-07-07T18:53:50-07:00 Michael Clarke wrote of IPC’s first film project that, “in making The Third River we were faced with Iraq as it is, not with the luscious and cloying luxuries of a Hollywood gorgeous east.” The Third River crafted a positive image of the company for Iraqis with a coherent image of dignified and cooperative Iraqi oil workers, invested in the construction of the pipeline as a nation-building project. At the same time the film tied the project of oil extraction to the promise of modernity and social progress in Iraq.
  The title The Third River emphasizes the flow of oil through its new pipeline as akin to the natural rivers that bring life to the land. Thus, the pipeline is represented as a natural conduit of national progress and modernity. In this sense, the film works to erase the visibility of the foreign company through the construction of an imaginary of oil extraction as a natural process, aided by modern industry. In this regard, the film excludes documentation of the top-down planning by the IPC that was necessary to carry out the pipeline project. Instead, the film focuses on presenting images of labor as if the construction were unfolding from the bottom up. 
  The film presents long sequences of men at work, welding and lifting and patiently waiting as the tedium of construction goes on. In the film and related promotional materials, the image of dignified and cooperative Iraqi oil workers, invested in the construction of the pipeline as a nation-building project, are featured as the driving workforce behind the project of oil extraction. Images of the oil company’s non-Iraqi representatives and experts remain virtually absent, except when white supervisors in European dress are shown speaking with men on the ground. Ultimately, The Third River defines the project of oil extraction as a logical extension of the country’s natural wealth, a foundation for the promise of national development (signified by modernization in the capital), and a stage for workforce productivity and cooperation.
  Next - "The Trappings of Modernity"
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