Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog

Watch Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog full size.

“My man Salam. Tells it like he sees it, and sees it like I can’t” – William Gibson

This promo was made in 2003 for Atlantic/Guardian Books’ groundbreaking non-fiction account of the invasion of Iraq as told by a 29-year-old Iraqi, Salam Pax.

An incredibly tough book to put into pictures – this was the first ever “blog to book” – we teamed up with previous collaborators on our Gil Scott Heron Promo, Julian House and Matt Cook at Intro.

We wrote the script, sourced the images (from the Guardian’s own photo archive), and even managed to persuade Aphex Twin to give us the music for free. A dedicated site was built to house the promo and support the publication of the book.

The site collected over 15,000 email addresses before launch, and was cross-promoted from the Guardian’s site and Salam’s blog. The Guardian hosted the promo.

The promo has toured the world, screened on the BBC, and is part of onedotzero’s DVD collection.

Watch Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog, Directed by Mat Cook