I set my mind to making a film about Iraq in early 2002 when it became clear that the United States would invade. By September 2002, I had found a way to travel to Iraq with my camera, tagging along with several US journalists following Congressman Jim McDermott to Baghdad as he made a prophetic but ultimately unsuccessful stand against the impending war.

In February of 2003 – just before the US invasion - I traveled to Baghdad a second time and filmed material until I was thrown out of the country for lack of a visa extension.

Following the 2003 invasion, I lived and filmed in Iraq for two full years, finally returning to the United States in April 2005 to finish editing.

It was never my intention to make a “war documentary.” I wanted to make a film about Iraq as a country, about the people of Iraq.

Iraq is such a unique place and for so long nobody could easily make films there; I could barely constrain my desire to document everything. I wanted to film ten stories at once, all in different parts of the country. In the end, I only filmed six different stories. Three of those stories made it into the final film.

What emerges in Iraq In Fragments is a film in three parts, cut roughly along the lines that define how most of us see Iraq: as Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. It would be easy to paint a simple picture of an Iraq divided along these lines, but the reality is more difficult.

My aim with Iraq In Fragments was to introduce the viewer to the breadth and complexity of the country, showing not only the divisions, but the unifying forces that tie it together.

It is important to me that this film presents many layers and points of view - reflecting the diversity I found. Iraq is a country with an uncertain future, a country that may cease to exist as a unified whole. Iraq In Fragments poses the future of Iraq as an open question, left unanswered.

The issue of Iraq is very contentious for many people. In Iraq In Fragments I am not trying to convince anyone of my personal political viewpoint. Instead, my film is a reminder of the human stories in Iraq that are often overlooked. Iraq, after all, is a country full of people who care nothing for our political arguments. They have their own lives, their own problems, their own way of seeing the world. One day the United States will leave Iraq, but the Iraqi people will remain. My film is about them.

—James Longley