Waiting for the "Peoples and Places" program to begin, I struck up a conversation with a representative from one of the shorts to be screened, "Freedom Plaza."
Arthur Jolly informed me that director Pericles Lewnes based the film on an actual conversation he had as a cameraman for a TV news agency with a woman who worked for the Iraqi media network. He recreates this conversation exactly, even playing himself, though the woman is portrayed by an actress and called “Mona” to protect her identity.
In the five minute drama, the two discuss where they were in Baghdad when Bush delivered his "Time is up" speech and the destruction that followed. Whereas Lewnes heard a fateful attack from a distance, Mona became a casualty.
Lewnes is best known for his work on the movie Redneck Zombies, so this short represents his breakthrough into more serious territory. After the powerful conversation, Lewnes realized there was a strong political message that he needed to convey, and this short is his first outlet addressing such controversial territory.