Heavy Metal in Baghdad delivered an unexpectedly candid look inside the war zone and all the people who are caught in the middle of a conflict that has nothing to do with them. There are no sides in the war for them, just fear, paranoia, chaos, and death. Their lives are destroyed along with the society, culture, and neighborhoods in which they grew up. It's so hard to honestly take in the amount of hopelessness and contempt a lot of people wrestle with everyday. It's their music that keeps them from turning into the thing they hate and they openly admit it. It's as if art tempers the chaos; makes the darkness manageable. We watch a lot of Iraq war docs here at Spout, but this one seems so much more important simple because it's about people and not administrations. I think it's our best shot at becoming involved with our global neighbors, to see them and be with them and join them in their context. I will certainly vote for change abroad, but I wonder what it might do to connect directly with people who are displaced and dying on the other side of the world. What difference would that make for them? or for us? I wonder if it's possible to stop so much senseless violence and death.